Daniel P. Kelly

Dr. Kelly obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, residency training at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and postdoctoral and clinical cardiology training at Washington University School of Medicine. He joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1989 and rapidly moved up the ranks to Professor of Medicine, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology, and Pediatrics, and served as Chief of the Cardiovascular Division and founding Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research. In 2008, Dr. Kelly assumed the role of founding Scientific Director for a new Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute site located in Lake Nona, Florida. Dr. Kelly’s research interests stem from an early fascination with rare inborn errors in mitochondrial metabolism in children which cause sudden death and heart failure. As a young researcher at Washington University, Dr. Kelly defined the genetic basis for a common inborn error in mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation, work that led to the development of practical screening tests for newborns. Thereafter, he became interested in how similar derangements in cardiac energy metabolism contribute to heart failure and sudden death in common acquired forms of mitochondrial diseases caused by hypertension, ischemic injury, and diabetes. His work defined the transcriptional regulatory axis involved in the control of cardiac fuel and energy metabolism through pioneering fundamental work on nuclear receptors including the PPARs, estrogen-related receptors (ERRs), and their transcriptional coactivator PGC-1. The Kelly laboratory has identified molecular “switches” in this regulatory pathway that potentially define distinct forms of heart failure, an important step towards identifying therapeutic targets for phenotype-specific treatment of heart failure. His laboratory is also engaged in translation of these discoveries, including chemical biology approaches. Dr. Kelly is a recipient of the American Heart Association Basic Science Prize and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Genes and Development and The Journal of Clinical Investigation.