Jeffery W. Kelly

Jeffery W. Kelly ( born August 23, 1960 in Medina, New York) is an American biochemist. He is a Professor of Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute ( Skaggs Institute).

Jeffery Kelly received in 1982 his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the State University of New York at Fredonia and in 1986 received his doctorate in Slayton A. Evans at the University of North Carolina in organic chemistry. As a post-doctoral researcher at Rockefeller University, he was with Emil Thomas Kaiser. He was an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor in 1994 and Professor in 1997 at Texas A & M University in 1989. From 1997 he was a professor at the Scripps Research Institute.

It deals with the mechanism of protein folding in the laboratory and in the cell, the enzyme involved paths and errors that occur there and due to loss of function or toxic effects lead to diseases such as Alzheimer 's disease and other amyloidoses and Parkinson 's disease. He developed in his laboratory drugs ( with targeted chemical synthesis of small molecules), which engage in the processes that lead to incorrect protein folding.

Kelly is Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Experimental Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. From 2000 to 2006 he was Vice-President ( Academic Affairs ), 2000-2008 Dean of Graduate Studies and from 2008 to 2010 he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Scripps Research Institute.

In 2003 he was co-founder of FoldRx Pharmaceuticals in Boston. The company developed the drug Vyndaquel ( tafamidis ) for Alzheimer's disease and cardiomyopathy. From 2005 to 2007 he was president of the Society protein.

In 2012 he received the Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, 2008 Vincent du Vigneaud Award from the American Peptide Society and the 2006 Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2001 he was Arthur C. Cope Scholar.