Jeffery Kelly, PhD, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry, has received the 2024 Stein & Moore Award from The Protein Society. This award recognizes eminent leaders in protein science who have made sustained, high-impact research contributions to the field. It’s named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore, who uncovered the chemical structure and catalytic activity of the ribonuclease molecule’s active center. 

Kelly is being recognized for his research in discovering mechanisms of protein folding, misfolding and aggregation. Kelly’s work has led to the development of the first treatment for a human amyloid disease: the transthyretin aggregation inhibitor and FDA-approved drug tafamidis (Vyndaqel® and Vyndamax®), a treatment that slows the progression of familial amyloid polyneuropathy (a neurodegenerative disease), and familial and sporadic TTR cardiomyopathy disease (a condition that ultimately causes heart failure). Importantly, the tafamidis clinical trial data demonstrated that protein aggregation causes neurodegeneration.

Kelly has received numerous additional awards for his life-changing research, including the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the 2019 E.B. Hershberg Award for Important Discoveries in Medicinally Active Substances, and the 2016 Jacob and Louise Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2023. The 2024 Protein Society Awards will be formally given at the 38^th Anniversary Symposium, taking place July 23-26, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada.