Faculty
Neil L. Kelleher
Professor
Molecular Biosciences, Chemistry Department, and Feinberg School of Medicine
PhD, Cornell University
Email: n-kelleher@northwestern.edu
Phone: (847) 467-4362
Fax: (847) 467-1380
Room: Silverman Hall 3613
Research Interests
(Taken from Kelleher's current website) Our laboratory has three main areas of research: custom instrumentation for Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS), Nuclear Signaling and Natural Products. More specifically, our main interests lie in the enzymology of natural product biosynthesis, mass spectrometric-based studies of the "Histone Code," and development of Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (FTMS) for Top Down Proteomics (i.e. analyzing intact proteins directly; no proteases).
A core activity is measuring chemical modifications to proteins in both hypothesis-driven and discovery modes. Our pioneering efforts in "Top Down" proteomics involve fragmenting intact protein ions in the gas phase and developing custom bioinformatics to characterize unexpected post-translational modifications (PTMs) in methane-producing microbes, yeast, and human cancer cells. In both human cell biology and antibiotic biosynthesis, key proteins harbor over 20 PTMs that present a "code" of biological logic written in the language of protein modifications. We construct, automate, and apply custom mass spectrometry and algorithms to detect and decode this logic.
Selected Publications
Endogenous peptide discovery of the rat circadian clock: a focused study of the suprachiasmatic nucleus by ultra-high performance tandem mass spectrometry. Lee JE, Atkins N Jr, Hatcher NG, Zamdborg L, Gillette MU, Sweedler JV, Kelleher NL. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2009 Nov 10. [Epub ahead of print]
A proteomics approach to discovering natural products and their biosynthetic pathways. Bumpus SB, Evans BS, Thomas PM, Ntai I, Kelleher NL. Nat Biotechnol. 2009 Oct;27(10):951-6. Epub 2009 Sep 20.PMID: 19767731 [PubMed - in process]
View all publications by Neil L. Kelleher listed in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed). Past and current IBiS students in blue