Jeffery Kelly, the H. Lutcher Brown Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, has been included on the Forbes Innovator 250 list, which recognizes 250 individuals whose ideas and business leadership have helped transform industries and brought new innovations to market.

This list honors 250 living innovators who exemplify the creative spirit of the U.S., as Forbes celebrates the nation’s 250th birthday through 2026. It highlights contemporary leaders who have scaled ideas from concept to widespread adoption, spanning fields ranging from biotechnology and artificial intelligence to finance and venture capital. According to Forbes, its honorees have reshaped existing industries or created entirely new ones and were ranked on factors like breadth, creativity, engagement and commercial impact.

Kelly is recognized for his pioneering contributions at the nexus of business, chemistry and pharmaceutical development, as evidenced by his co-founding of FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a company that advanced an FDA-approved drug discovered in the Kelly laboratory at Scripps Research to treat heart disease and neurodegeneration. A long-time leader in translational science, Kelly has focused on understanding the molecular origins of human disease, with an emphasis on protein misfolding disorders linked to neurodegenerative and cardiovascular illnesses. His work has helped lay the foundation for new therapeutic strategies aimed at treating conditions that were once considered intractable.

Kelly is widely known for his work on amyloid diseases, which occur when normally helpful proteins become unstable, misfold and clump together in ways that damage cells and tissues. This research led to Kelly’s co-development of tafamidis: an FDA-approved drug that stabilizes the transthyretin protein to prevent misfolding. Tafamidis is now used to treat transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, a heart disease that’s often fatal within five years if left untreated, as well as transthyretin amyloid polyneuropathy, a condition that causes progressive nerve damage in the hands, feet and other parts of the body. Tafamidis appears to prevent the onset of dementia, a long-term manifestation of transthyretin amyloidosis.

To help translate his laboratory discoveries into treatments, Kelly co-founded FoldRx, which advanced tafamidis through early development before it was acquired by Pfizer and ultimately brought to patients.

For these accomplishments, Kelly is recognized alongside innovators whose work continues to redefine what’s possible through science, technology, business acumen and creative leadership. The latest cohort of the Forbes Innovator 250 list is invited to a private reception this May in Silicon Valley, the birthplace of modern technology. The full list is now available on Forbes’ website, with the print edition set to appear on newsstands later in February.