Dr Merrel Holley

Co-founder of RC Hyperbaric Wellness in Ennis, TX, Dr Merrel Holley, Doctor of Functional Medicine, is a pioneer in hyperbaric oxygen therapy, regulation of gene expression, and environmental health. He currently serves as the Senior Research Scientist for the TOR Institute of Antiaging, Tissue & Organ Regeneration, and president of the International Hyperbaric Medical Foundation.

Presaging the field of Epigenetics by almost three decades, he posited Holley’s 1st Law of Biology in 1976 while an undergrad at Louisiana State University: “During the course of the lifespan of any organism, both the genotype and phenotype of that organism changes in response to exogenous environmental exposure!”

This observation forms the foundation of “EnviroGenetics,” his iconoclastic Applied Biophysics model of evolution, genetics, and disease. The “10 Pillars of Brain Insults” are extracted from that model.

The “Incontrovertible Pillars of Health soon followed: “Breathing clean air, drinking clean water, eating clean food, proper diet, proper nutrition, proper hydration, proper exercise, proper sleep, hyperoxygenation of the tissues, and avoidance of exogenous chemical exposures!”

Next, his research showing that most cancers can’t survive ketone body metabolism when potentiated by HBOT.

This line of thought led to numerous research projects, such as the microbiome numerical species profile of our ancestral macrodiets, the Neanderthal Diet and concept of “Floating Ketosis,” and thousands of studies on the neuropsychological and physiological effects of exogenous chemical exposures, ranging from ancestral generations to embryonic development and throughout lifespan to transgenerational inheritance of acquired epigenetic characteristics.

Practising Environmental Toxicology since 1978, Dr Holley has travelled the world, finding out what makes people sick, what makes people age, and developing technologies to reverse trauma, aging, and disease.

A prolific inventor and autodidact, polymath, educated in the Classics as opposed to merely being trained, he has generated a lengthy IP pipeline, including the paradigm-shifting NBC BioShelter in 1978 and EMU’s, the environmentally-safe nontoxic building systems (Environmental Medical Control Units) in order to provide pristine Indoor Air Quality as a mandatory prerequisite for epigenetic regulation of gene expression. His applied research focus since 1984 has been, in addition to antiaging, neuroregeneration for recovery from brain insults ranging from physical trauma to neurotransmitter deficiencies to pathogens to parasites to gut dysbiosis to pathophysiology of chemical exposures.

Dr Holley was a 1970’s pioneer in Stem Cell Biology and recombinant gene therapy to correct endogenous genetic disease, as well as epigenetic regulation of gene expression to correct genetic dysregulation caused by exogenous chemical exposures. He began his path in neurobiology in 1984, expounding on the various pathophysiological causes of brain dysfunction.

As a DOD contractor, in 2006 this evolved into the NextGen neuroregeneration technologies beyond HBOT, together with the NextGen technological platform beyond hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the multipatented “Hyperbaric Exercise with Oxygen Therapy,” capable of treating 1,200 brain-injured persons per day, reversing the causes of brain injuries, ranging from physical and psychological trauma to viral/bacterial/fungal pathogenesis to parasites to neurogenerative syndromes.

A prolific writer, Dr Holley authored 4 internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed research papers published in major journals in 2024, including Nature. Three of these were novel oncology papers, one of which was an update of his 1976 research paper entitled, “The Role of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in the Prostate Tumour Microenvironment and Cancer Stem Cell Niche,” the 4th being the first documented reversal of Malignant Hypertension and Chronic Kidney disease.

Five research papers have been submitted for journal publication in 2025 and currently in peer-review.

But perhaps his greatest strength is that, in addition to being an independent thinker, he has the uncanny ability to reach across borders and boundaries to build international teams and coalitions of extreme talent from diverse backgrounds and experiences in order to solve complex and intractable problems, devoid of bias, understanding that the quality of the net output of the select team is exponentially greater than the sum of the capabilities of each individual team member. He seeks deep, profound thought, then continually pokes and prods and asks a barrage of deeply penetrating questions and listens to the nuance and context of the responses.

Such is the value of collaboration.