Jeffery W. Kelly

Kelly has made many contributions to the understanding of protein folding. The amyloid hypothesis posits that protein aggregation causes neurodegeneration, but by discerning the detailed mechanism of transthyretin aggregation, Kelly was able to validate, pharmacologically, the amyloid hypothesis in the context of the transthyretin amyloid diseases via placebo-controlled human clinical trial data using a pharmacologic strategy and a drug (tafamidis) he discovered. Jeffery also enabled the generation of human clinical trial evidence supporting the validity of the amyloid hypothesis. In 2001, Kelly was awarded the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award by the American Chemical Society.~~