Deb Kelly - Penn State Cancer Institute
Researcher Profile
Deb Kelly
Professor and Huck Chair in Molecular Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering
Scientific Program:Next-Generation Therapies
Research Interests
Dr. Deb Kelly's research focuses on innovative approaches to study biological systems, ranging from human viruses to cancer. Central to her work is high-resolution imaging, primarily cryo-Electron Microscopy (EM). Invasive breast cancer threatens the lives of women everywhere and there is no precise treatment for the disease. Her team has developed a tunable microchip toolkit to study mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility protein, BRCA1. Using this new tools, the Kelly lab expects to determine strategic insights for the molecular detection and prevention of BRCA1-related cancers. Her team is on the cutting edge of the burgeoning new field they call structural oncology.
- Electron Microscopy
- Proteins
- Cryoelectron Microscopy
- Neoplasms
- Single Molecule Imaging
- Lipids
- Glioblastoma
- Electrons
- Rotavirus
- Mutation
- Viruses
- Technology
Recent Publications
2024
Solares, MJ, Dearnaley, WJ & Kelly, DF 2024, 'Elucidating structural variability in p53 conformers using combinatorial refinement strategies and molecular dynamics', Cancer Biology and Therapy, vol. 25, no. 1, 2290732. https://doi.org/10.1080/15384047.2023.2290732
2023
Jonaid, GM, Dearnaley, WJ, Berry, S, Gray, J, Spilman, M, Dukes, MJ & Kelly, DF 2023, 'Comparative Analysis of Cryo-electron Microscopy and Liquid-electron Microscopy Image Processing Workflows', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1033. https://doi.org/10.1093/micmic/ozad067.525
Kelly, DF, Jonaid, GM, Kaylor, L, Solares, MJ, Berry, S, DiCecco, LA, Dearnaley, W & Casasanta, M 2023, 'Delineating Conformational Variability in Small Protein Structures Using Combinatorial Refinement Strategies', Micromachines, vol. 14, no. 10, 1869. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14101869
Berry, S, DiCecco, LA, Gray, J, Boylan, J, Solares, M & Kelly, DF 2023, 'Diving into COVID-19: Visualizing SARS-CoV-2 Patient Proteins using Liquid-Electron Microscopy', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 662-664. https://doi.org/10.1093/micmic/ozad067.325
DiCecco, LA, Gao, R, Gray, JL, Kelly, DF, Sone, ED & Grandfield, K 2023, 'Liquid Transmission Electron Microscopy Imaging of Organic-inorganic Interfaces: Exploring Hydrated Collagen Mineralization Processes', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1236-1238. https://doi.org/10.1093/micmic/ozad067.635
DiCecco, LA, Gao, R, Gray, JL, Kelly, DF, Sone, ED & Grandfield, K 2023, 'Liquid Transmission Electron Microscopy for Probing Collagen Biomineralization', Nano letters, vol. 23, no. 21, pp. 9760-9768. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02344
Solares, MJ, Jonaid, GM & Kelly, DF 2023, 'Resolving p53 to Create Clinically-Relevant Mutation Models', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1087-1090. https://doi.org/10.1093/micmic/ozad067.560
Anderson, ML, Sullivan, OM, Nichols, SL, Kaylor, L, Kelly, DF & McDonald Esstman, S 2023, 'Rotavirus core shell protein sites that regulate intra-particle polymerase activity', Journal of virology, vol. 97, no. 10. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00860-23
Casasanta, MA, Jonaid, GM, Kaylor, L, Luqiu, WY, Dicecco, LA, Solares, MJ, Berry, S, Dearnaley, WJ & Kelly, DF 2023, 'Structural Insights of the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein: Implications for the Inner-workings of Rapid Antigen Tests', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 649-657. https://doi.org/10.1093/micmic/ozac036
2022
Dicecco, LA, Berry, S, Jonaid, GM, Solares, MJ, Kaylor, L, Gray, JL, Bator, C, Dearnaley, WJ, Spilman, M, Dressel-Dukes, MJ, Grandfield, K, McDonald Esstman, SM & Kelly, DF 2022, 'Advancing High-Resolution Imaging of Virus Assemblies in Liquid and Ice', Journal of Visualized Experiments, vol. 2022, no. 185, e63856. https://doi.org/10.3791/63856
Jonaid, GM, Casasanta, MA, Dearnaley, WJ, Berry, S, Kaylor, L, Dressel-Dukes, MJ, Spilman, MS, Gray, JL & Kelly, DF 2022, 'Automated Tools to Advance High-Resolution Imaging in Liquid', Microscopy and Microanalysis, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 361-370. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927621013921
Solares, MJ & Kelly, DF 2022, 'Complete Models of p53 Better Inform the Impact of Hotspot Mutations', International journal of molecular sciences, vol. 23, no. 23, 15267. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232315267
Pridham, KJ, Shah, F, Hutchings, KR, Sheng, KL, Guo, S, Liu, M, Kanabur, P, Lamouille, S, Lewis, G, Morales, M, Jourdan, J, Grek, CL, Ghatnekar, GG, Varghese, R, Kelly, DF, Gourdie, RG & Sheng, Z 2022, 'Connexin 43 confers chemoresistance through activating PI3K', Oncogenesis, vol. 11, no. 1, 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41389-022-00378-7
Solares, MJ, Jonaid, GM, Luqiu, WY, Berry, S, Khadela, J, Liang, Y, Evans, MC, Pridham, KJ, Dearnaley, WJ, Sheng, Z & Kelly, DF 2022, 'High-Resolution Imaging of Human Cancer Proteins Using Microprocessor Materials', ChemBioChem, vol. 23, no. 17, e202200310. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202200310
Kelly, DF, DiCecco, LA, Jonaid, GM, Dearnaley, WJ, Spilman, MS, Gray, JL & Dressel-Dukes, MJ 2022, 'Liquid-EM goes viral – visualizing structure and dynamics', Current Opinion in Structural Biology, vol. 75, 102426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102426
2021
Jonaid, GM, Dearnaley, WJ, Casasanta, MA, Kaylor, L, Berry, S, Dukes, MJ, Spilman, MS, Gray, JL & Kelly, DF 2021, 'High-Resolution Imaging of Human Viruses in Liquid Droplets', Advanced Materials, vol. 33, no. 37, 2103221. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202103221
Casasanta, MA, Jonaid, GM, Kaylor, L, Luqiu, WY, Solares, MJ, Schroen, ML, Dearnaley, WJ, Wilson, J, Dukes, MJ & Kelly, DF 2021, 'Microchip-based structure determination of low-molecular weight proteins using cryo-electron microscopy', Nanoscale, vol. 13, no. 15, pp. 7285-7293. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nr00388g
2020
Dukes, M, Kelly, D & Varano, C 2020, 'Liquid cell TEM imaging techniques and optimization for biological samples', Microscopy and Microanalysis. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927620023788
Solares, MJ, Jonaid, GM, Luqiu, WY, Liang, Y, Evans, MC, Dearnaley, WJ, Sheng, Z & Kelly, DF 2020, 'Microchip-Based Structure Determination of Disease-Relevant p53', Analytical Chemistry, vol. 92, no. 23, pp. 15558-15564. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c03599