Neil Kelleher, Walter and Mary Elizabeth Glass Professor of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, and Medicine at Northwestern University, will present his groundbreaking work and insights at US HUPO 2024 in Portland, Oregon next week as the 2024 recipient of the Donald F. Hunt Distinguished Contribution in Proteomics Award.
“Dr. Kelleher epitomizes a focused achievement within the realm of proteomics,” stated HUPO leadership in their press announcement. “This award recognizes his unparalleled contributions to targeted applications in top-down proteomics, natural products discovery, and chromatin biology, and celebrates Kelleher’s impact on proteomics research.”
Kelleher, the Director of Northwestern’s Chemistry of Life Processes Institute and its 50-person Proteomics Center of Excellence, will speak at US HUPO 2024 on Monday, March 11, 2024, from 8:30 AM to 9:05 AM PT. In addition to celebrating the legacy of Professor Donald F. Hunt, whose approach to science, technology and mentorship has had an enormous impact on the field, Kelleher will explain his pioneering approach to detecting and characterizing human proteins in his plenary talk, ‘Harnessing Mass Spectrometry to Help Domesticate the Human Proteome.’
For over twenty years, the Kelleher Group has invented new methods to discover the exact forms of protein molecules in human cells. The world has come to call these “proteoforms.” Kelleher uses “Top-Down” Proteomics to discover, characterize and assign function to them with increasing efficiency. The “domestication” of the human proteome via precise compositional mapping will improve the efficiency of basic and clinical research and therefore enhance diverse goals for the 21st Century, including designer organs, personalized medicine, and early detection of human disease. A recent article in Science (2022, 375: 411-418) typifies the promise and crescendo of activity in this area of proteomics, advanced consistently by Kelleher over the past 25 years.
A non-profit association, US HUPO (US Human Proteome Organization) engages in scientific and educational activities to encourage the use of proteomics technologies and to disseminate knowledge about the human proteome and that of model organisms. Learn more about US HUPO at www.ushupo.org.
by Lisa La Vallee