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In medical research—like in all areas of
innovation—it is impossible to predict
where the next great idea might come
from. The Department of Surgery recently
hosted a researcher who is investigating
an unusual potential cancer treatment:
Anthony Holland, PhD, a renowned
composer who has conducted at Carnegie
Hall and has been teaching at Skidmore
College for 27 years.

Since early in his career, Dr. Holland has
been interested in physics and acoustics.
“Years ago I read a book [about] a
frequency machine that was capable
of destroying microorganisms if it was
tuned to just the right frequency.” This
made sense intuitively to Dr. Holland;
each semester he taught his students
to be careful about conditions that can
create sound that travels at a particular
wavelength, which can develop a
“resonant frequency.”

Dr. Holland had audited courses on
microbiology in the past. “I learned to use
microscopes and to grow and safely keep
bacteria—and later cancer cells—in an
incubator.” Dr. Holland was able to gather
the necessary electronic components
and build a frequency machine. For
fifteen months he ran test frequencies on
harmless, easy-to-obtain microorganisms
(paramecium and blepharisma).
“I began to try different frequencies, and
at first nothing happened. Then I tried
putting more than one frequency into
the organism simultaneously.” Then
a light bulb went on for Dr. Holland.
“If I added one additional frequency,
in a special relationship to the first
frequency, I’d be creating more power
and have a better chance at landing on
the frequency necessary to change the
organism,” Dr. Holland says. “When I
added the eleventh harmonic, I looked
through the microscope and discovered
that the microorganism had shattered.
It reminded me of how a crystal glass
shatters when a soprano hits just the
right note.”

As luck would have it, in 2008, Dr.
Holland attended a Skidmore Alumni
Day presentation on pancreatic cancer
by his former student Jonathan Brody,
PhD, Assistant Professor in Jefferson’s
Division of Surgical Research. Following
the presentation, Dr. Holland invited him
to watch his video of the cells exploding.
After several minutes, Dr. Brody asked,
“Could you blow up cancer cells like
that?” Dr. Holland said, “I don’t know,
but I’d like to try.” Dr. Brody then
arranged Dr. Holland’s mini-sabbatical in
the Department of Surgery at Jefferson.
“Jefferson has been extremely openminded
throughout this process,
which is the ultimate test of a research
institution,” says Dr. Holland. “I assumed
that physicians and other researchers
would think it was a nutty idea,” he
confesses. “But to the contrary—everyone
I encountered realized the potential. I
have never experienced such a wonderful
reception of new ideas in my entire
professional life.”

“Dr. Holland is an extraordinary man,”
says Dr. Brody, who has been impressed
by his work since he was his student in
the 1990s. “and we need extraordinary
people working together from many
angles to fight this devastating disease.”
Preliminary results suggest that Dr.
Holland’s device causes changes in the
size and shape of pancreatic cancer cells.
“This reflects that we’re in the right
ballpark,” he says, “that the frequency
could affect cells as to destroy them.” Dr.
Holland was invited back to Jefferson in
August to repeat two key experiments,
and he reports that highly technical
quantitative analysis indicates some
promising results.

Dr. Holland is going on sabbatical from
Skidmore this January, and plans to
continue (and ultimately publish) his
research. “When people ask me what
kind of music I’m composing now,” he
says, “I tell them I’m writing music for
microorganisms and cancer cells. But
what makes this piece different, is that if
I do it right, it won’t be enjoyable to the
audience. It will do them in.”