Shana Kelley

About

Shana Kelley is the Neena B. Schwartz Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University. Her research group employs a highly multidisciplinary approach to develop new tools for disease diagnosis and therapy. Her projects focus on the development of biomolecular sensors, phenotypic screening platforms, and molecular delivery vectors, utilizing cutting-edge techniques including CRISPR screening and cellular engineering. Kelley’s work aims to create innovative solutions for biomedicine, impacting areas such as diagnostic development and therapeutic strategies. Throughout her career, Kelley has generated over 200 publications, mentored approximately 50 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows, and founded three companies based on her research technologies. Her scientific background spans chemistry, biology, engineering, and other fields, enabling her to lead diverse research initiatives. Kelley has received numerous recognitions, including fellowships, awards, and honors from prestigious institutions such as the Royal Society of Canada, Harvard University, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Her contributions significantly advance the fields of biomedical engineering and chemical biology.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Chromatography
• Organic chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Optoelectronics
• Computer Science
• Composite material
• Engineering

Selected publications

• 33 Unresolved Questions in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

  ACS Nano · 2025-09-04 · 22 citations

  articleOpen access

  Significant advances in science and engineering often emerge at the intersections of disciplines. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are inherently interdisciplinary, uniting researchers from chemistry, physics, biology, medicine, materials science, and engineering. This convergence has fostered novel ways of thinking and enabled the development of materials, tools, and technologies that have transformed both basic and applied research, as well as how we address critical societal challenges. In this…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Microfluidic technologies for enhancing the potency, predictability and affordability of adoptive cell therapies

  Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2025-02-14 · 20 citations

  reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Wearable biomolecular sensing nanotechnologies in chronic disease management

  Nature Nanotechnology · 2025-10-01 · 19 citations

  reviewOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• From reactive to proactive: Continuous protein monitoring for preventive health care

  Science · 2025-09-25 · 12 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Continuous biomarker monitoring is revolutionizing chronic disease management, with glucose monitoring for diabetes as the primary example. Given the success of this approach, a transition to continuous protein monitoring (CPM, a real-time, implantable or wearable technology) could similarly advance precision medicine. In this work, we review state-of-the-art CPM platforms and their prospective clinical impact across both chronic disorders-metabolic, cardiovascular, autoimmune, and neurodegenera…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Antifouling Spiky Nanoelectrodes Enhance Detection of Bacterial mRNA

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025-02-24 · 10 citations

  article

  Nanomaterials have extensive applications in the development of sensitive biosensors, but the influence of their specific structural properties remains unclear. This work presents a platform that can provide mechanistic insight into how nanostructured electrodes improve the performance of electrochemical biosensors. We designed nanoelectrodes with sub-10 nm spike features through a combination of top-down lithography and solution-based synthesis. These anisotropic structures facilitated rapid el…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Programmable electrochemical gene circuit sensors for infectious disease detection

  NIH · $300k · 2018–2021

• Development and validation of nanoparticle-mediated microfluidic profiling approach for rare cell analysis

  NIH · $824k · 2017–2021

• NIH Grant R21CA097945

  NIH · $471k · 2005

Frequent coauthors

• Edward H. Sargent

  University of Toronto

  266 shared

• Eric Bakker

  University of Geneva

  189 shared

• J. Justin Gooding

  UNSW Sydney

  189 shared

• Antonella I. Mazur

  University of California, San Diego

  185 shared

• Michael J. Sailor

  University of California, San Diego

  185 shared

• Maarten Merkx

  Eindhoven University of Technology

  185 shared

• Lanqun Mao

  Beijing Normal University

  182 shared

• Heather A. Clark

  182 shared

Labs

• Kelley LaboratoryPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 2021
• Order of Ontario, 2021
• AFPC Pfizer Award, 2020
• Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Rowland Institute, Harvard Un…
• ACS Nanoscience Award, 2017

Similar researchers at Northwestern University

• Milan Mrksichh-100
• Michael Marklh-88
• Igor Efimovh-83