Kelvin Lee, Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute at UD, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Lee was selected for "distinguished contributions to the development and application of proteomics technology to human health."
Lee and his team have been at the forefront of developing next-generation tools for protein expression profiling and applying existing tools to specific problems in biomolecular engineering and medicine, with a special emphasis on Alzheimer's disease. Their efforts recently have led to the first validated premortem test for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on spinal fluid proteins.
"Using a proteomics approach to study changes in protein expression in cerebrospinal fluid, we identified a panel of biomarkers useful for the diagnosis of the disease in living individuals, a previously unmet challenge because a definitive diagnosis must await postmortem confirmation," Lee said.
In close collaboration with clinicians, Lee's group has extended this approach to the assessment of a passive immunization strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease which has shown significant promise in early clinical trials.