Shana O. Kelley
Shana O. Kelley is a scientist and University Professor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine. Her research includes the development of new technologies for clinical diagnostics and drug delivery. She will join the Departments of Chemistry and of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, and will be affiliated with the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern. Education and training. Kelley received her B.S. from Seton Hall University in 1994. She pursued graduate studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, where she worked with Jacqueline Barton. She graduated with her  Ph.D. in 1999 with a dissertation entitled ""Electron Transfer through the DNA Double Helix: Spectroscopic and Electrochemical Studies"." From 1999 to 2000, Kelley was a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scripps Research Institute, where she worked with Paul Schimmel. Independent career. Kelley began her independent research career as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at Boston College in 2000. In 2006, she was promoted directly to the rank of Full Professor and in 2007, she joined the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. Kelley founded a university spin-off company named GeneOhm Sciences with her  graduate advisor Jacqueline Barton. GeneOhm Sciences was based on a discovery that Kelley made during her graduate studies, where she developed a method to detect mutations in DNA by modifying the DNA strands and measuring their differing conductivity. GeneOhm Sciences used Kelley's discovery to create a diagnostic test for antibiotic-resistant MRSA bacteria. GeneOhm was acquired by Becton Dickinson in early 2006. Kelley also founded the molecular diagnostics companies Xagenic Inc. Personal life. Kelley is married to fellow University of Toronto Professor Ted Sargent. They met at a nanotechnology conference at UC Irvine, and have two children together. Shana