Research Interests
After finishing his joint graduate work with Tadhg Begley and Fred McLafferty at Cornell University in 1997, Neil Kelleher moved to the laboratory of Christopher Walsh at Harvard Medical School. This training in high performance mass spectrometry and enzymology explains much of the research performed by his independent laboratory over the last decade at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. In 2010 the Kelleher Group relocated to Northwestern University where the three main sub-groups continue working in the areas of Top Down Proteomics, Natural Products Biosynthesis/Discovery, and Chromatin Biology. Dr. Kelleher has been successful in driving both technology development and applications of very high performance mass spectrometry in both chemistry and biology. He has over 300 publications, an H-factor of 68, and provides ProSight software via the web to over 500 labs around the world. The core of the Kelleher Team is built around expertise in technology development for complex mixture analysis using Fourier-Transform Mass Spectrometry for targeted applications in proteomics and metabolomics. Dr. Kelleher harbors specific interests in the biosynthesis and discovery of polyketides and non-ribosomally produced peptides. Further themes of the Kelleher laboratory include using intact proteins for efficient detection of their post-translational modifications, with specific interests in chromatin and cancer biology.