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Deborah F. Kelly

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Deborah F. Kelly
Alma materFlorida State University
Scientific career
InstitutionsVirginia Tech
Harvard Medical School
Pennsylvania State University
Websitehttps://www.deb-kelly-lab.com

Deborah F. Kelly is an American biomedical engineer who is a professor at Pennsylvania State University. Her research makes use of cryogenic electron microscopy to better understand human development and disease. She was elected President of the Microscopy Society of America in 2022.[1]

Some of her papers have been retracted, and Pennsylvania State University barred her from conducting research for the institution due to what its investigation determined were data integrity problems in her work.[2]

Early life and education

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Kelly attended Florida State University for graduate research.[3] She moved to the Harvard Medical School for her postdoctoral research. After seven years as a research fellow at Harvard, Kelly joined the Virginia Tech School of Medicine as an assistant professor.[citation needed]

Research and career

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In 2017, Kelly was promoted to associate professor at Virginia Tech. She moved to Pennsylvania State University as Director of the Center for Structural Oncology in 2019.[citation needed]

Kelly combines structural and functional characterization tools to understand cellular communication. Amongst these, she has considered protein receptors. On the surfaces of cells, these receptors transmit information about cellular microenvironment to cellular nuclei. These signals can cause genes to turn off and on. Cancer cells can thrive when genes are activated inappropriately during cell division.[4] These cancerous cells can evade conventional forms of treatment and are understood to result in the formation of malignant tumors. By determining the three-dimensional structure of these protein complexes Kelly hopes to design new therapeutic interventions.

Kelly makes use of cryogenic electron microscopy to visualize these cellular interactions.[5][6][7] Specifically, she has developed a platform ('affinity capture') that can isolate the cells which cause metastasis.[8][9] Kelly developed a microchip toolkit to identify mutations in BRCA1.[3][10] These microchips, which she called cryo-chips, use silicon nitride to quickly identify, isolate and tether protein assemblies.[11][12] When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Kelly shifted her focus to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[13] However, one study by Kelly and colleagues, studying the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 and using the group's chip technology,[14] was later retracted by Nanoscale due to several technical problems and questions.

Kelly has also reported methods which propose to determine protein structures in the liquid phase (Liquid-EM),[15][16][17] as opposed to the standard frozen state of Cryogenic electron microscopy. However, the validity of this method and the reported results have been questioned by others in the field.[18] Four of her papers have been retracted, she has been banned from research activities at Pennsylvania State University (following an investigation by the university that found "serious data integrity concerns"), and her work continues to be scrutinized.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "About MSA - Council". Microscopy Society of America. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  2. ^ a b "Penn State barred embattled professor from doing research". Retraction Watch. 20 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Deb Kelly". Penn State. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  4. ^ "Dr. Debbie Kelly Lab | Penn State University". Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  5. ^ "How Cryo-EM is Helping Researchers Battle Breast Cancer". Accelerating Microscopy. 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  6. ^ "Cryo-Electron Microscopy in Cancer Research". Accelerating Microscopy. 2021-09-16. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  7. ^ "Celebrating Women in Cryo-EM - US". www.thermofisher.com. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  8. ^ "About Us | Dr. Debbie Kelly Lab". Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  9. ^ Solares, Maria J.; Kelly, Deborah F. (March 2022). "Harnessing the Power of Structural Oncology". Microscopy Today. 30 (2): 10–17. doi:10.1017/S1551929522000426. ISSN 1551-9295. S2CID 247632380.
  10. ^ "A View to a Cure". PennStater Magazine. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  11. ^ "SBGrid Consortium - Member Tale - Deb Kelly - Penn State University". sbgrid.org. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  12. ^ "Microchip-Based Toolkit to Complement Protein Analysis Using Cryo-Electron Microscopy – Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog". Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  13. ^ "Antibody binding-site conserved across COVID-19 virus variants: The structural revelation could have implications as a therapeutic target in all SARS-CoV-2 variants". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  14. ^ Casasanta, Michael A.; Jonaid, G. M.; Kaylor, Liam; Luqiu, William Y.; Solares, Maria J.; Schroen, Mariah L.; Dearnaley, William J.; Wilson, Jarad; Dukes, Madeline J.; Kelly, Deborah F. (2021). "Microchip-based structure determination of low-molecular weight proteins using cryo-electron microscopy". Nanoscale. 13 (15): 7285–7293. doi:10.1039/D1NR00388G. PMC 8135184.
  15. ^ Dukes, Madeline J.; Gilmore, Brian L.; Tanner, Justin R.; McDonald, Sarah M.; Kelly, Deborah F. (30 December 2013). "In situ TEM of Biological Assemblies in Liquid". Journal of Visualized Experiments (82). doi:10.3791/50936. PMC 4106202.
  16. ^ Cameron Varano, A.; Rahimi, Amina; Dukes, Madeline J.; Poelzing, Steven; M. McDonald, Sarah; Kelly, Deborah F. (2015). "Visualizing virus particle mobility in liquid at the nanoscale". Chemical Communications. 51 (90): 16176–16179. doi:10.1039/C5CC05744B. hdl:10919/64948.
  17. ^ Kelly, Deborah F.; DiCecco, Liza-Anastasia; Jonaid, G.M.; Dearnaley, William J.; Spilman, Michael S.; Gray, Jennifer L.; Dressel-Dukes, Madeline J. (August 2022). "Liquid-EM goes viral – visualizing structure and dynamics". Current Opinion in Structural Biology. 75: 102426. doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102426. (Retracted, see doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2024.102947, PMID 39490243)
  18. ^ Egelman, Edward H. (August 2024). "The myth of high‐resolution liquid phase biological electron microscopy". Protein Science. 33 (8). doi:10.1002/pro.5125. PMC 11261809.
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