John B. Fenn Annual Lecture
The John B. Fenn Lecture honors the life of VCU’s only Nobel Prize Winner.
Dr. Fenn joined the faculty at VCU in 1994 and received the Nobel Prize in 2002 for the development of electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry. The invention revolutionized the study of large biomolecules including proteins. He is remembered as a spirited colleague who was devoted to innovation and education.
John Bennet Fenn was born in New York City on June 15, 1917. He received a B.A. in Chemistry from Berea College and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at Yale University three years later. Fenn spent over a decade in industry, first at the Monsanto Chemical Co. in Anniston, Alabama, and later at Experiment Incorporated in Richmond, Virginia, where his work led to employment as the director of Project SQUID, an Office of Naval Research program focused on jet expansions.
His first faculty appointment came in 1957 at Princeton University as a Professor of Aerospace Sciences; he returned to Yale in 1967 as a Professor of Applied Science and Chemistry. During his tenure at Yale, Fenn’s research focused on molecular beam and supersonic jet expansion experiments. Presented by colleagues with the problems involved in ionizing large biomolecules for mass spectrometric analysis, John Fenn, at nearly 65, embarked on a new research trajectory, one which would lead to the development of a practical electrospray ionization source.
In 1994 he moved his research lab to Virginia Commonwealth University where he was appointed Research Professor of Analytical Chemistry. This move allowed Fenn to continue his research program, producing more than 20 additional papers. It also provided the opportunity to interact with students and faculty on a daily basis, as he continued to inspire undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and colleagues.
Fenn’s research garnered wide recognition across a variety of fields with the ultimate honor being a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.
Fenn’s professional honors include:
- ASMS Distinguished Contribution Award (1992)
- ACS-DAC award for Advances in Chemical Instrumentation (2000)
- Election to the American Academy of Arts and of Science (2000)
- Thompson Medal from ISMS (2000)
Event Details
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Time: 4:00p.m.
Location: Academic Learning Commons (MCALC) Room 1107
Lecture
"The Case to Scale Proteoform Measurement and Biology to The Entire Human Proteome"
For over twenty years, the Kelleher Group has invented new methods to discover the exact forms of protein molecules in human cells. The world has come to call these “proteoforms” and Kelleher uses so-called “Top-Down” Proteomics to discover, characterize and assign function to them with increasing efficiency. The “domestication” of the human proteome via precise compositional mapping will improve the efficiency of basic and clinical research and therefore enhance diverse goals for the 21st Century, including designer organs, personalized medicine, and early detection of human disease. Recently we developed proteoform imaging mass spectrometry (PiMS), to achieve spatial proteoform mapping with individual ion mass spectrometry. This platform has been extended now to single-cell Proteoform imaging Mass Spectrometry (scPiMS), boosting cell processing rates by >20-fold in the field while detecting proteoforms from single cells.
Speaker Bio
Walter and Mary E. Glass Professor of Molecular Biosciences; Professor of Chemistry, Weinberg College of Arts Sciences Professor of Medicine (Hematology & Oncology), Feinberg School of Medicine; Director, Northwestern Proteomics; Director, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute
Neil L. Kelleher, PhD, is the Walter and Mary E. Glass Professor of Molecular Biosciences, Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Medicine (Hematology & Oncology) in the Feinberg School of Medicine. His primary research interests include top-down proteomics, natural products discovery, and cancer biology. Kelleher is the Director of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute and Director of Northwestern Proteomics. He is a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Neil Kelleher’s research group is focused on top-down proteomics, chromatin biology, and natural product biosynthesis and discovery. Contributing to both technology development and application of mass spectrometry in chemistry and biology, The Kelleher Research Group is interested in the biosynthesis and discovery of novel natural products with potential pharmacological activities. The lab leverages top-down proteomics—the analysis of intact proteins for precise localization of post-translational modifications — to advance and contribute to the understanding of chromatin and cancer biology.
Kelleher is both a pioneer and champion of the top-down approach and the Human Proteoform Project (HPfP), a global research initiative to weigh every protein in the human body—250,000 proteoforms in 4,000 different cell types. HPfP will enable dramatic increases in the speed and efficiency by which investigators can identify higher-value protein-based markers of disease and spur game-changing advances in biomedical research, drug development and human health.
Kelleher received a B.S. and B.A. from Pacific Lutheran University in 1992, a Fulbright Fellowship the following year, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1997 completing his joint graduate work with Tadhg Begley and Fred McLafferty. In 1999, after a NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School with Chris Walsh, Kelleher joined the faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he established his research program in proteomics. In 2010, he joined the faculty at Northwestern University.
Throughout his career, Kelleher has received many honors, including the Arthur P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Packard Fellowship, Dreyfus Award for New Investigators, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Lilly Analytical Chemistry Award and National Institutes of Health Career Transition Award. He also was a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Young Investigator and a Searle Scholar. In 2004, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Kelleher also co-founded several successful startups, including Nativetdms.org, IntegratedProteinTechnologies.com , Proteinaceous.net, and MicroMGX.com.
Kelleher has written more than 300 publications. The ProSight software suite developed by Kelleher is used by more than 1,000 labs around the world. An international leader in his field, Kelleher is the founder and president of the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics, a 350-member organization with global reach.
Past Speakers
- 2024 - John R. Yates III, Ph.D., Scripps Research
- 2022 - David C. Muddiman, Ph.D., North Carolina State University
- 2021 - Michael C. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., Duke University
- 2019 - Martin F. Jarrold, Ph.D., Indiana University
- 2018 - Richard D. Smith, Ph.D., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- 2016 - Michael T. Bowers, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
- 2015 - Richard N. Zare, Ph.D., Stanford University
- 2014 - Dudley Herschbach, Ph.D., Harvard University
- 2013 - Joel M. Harris, Ph.D., University of Utah
- 2012 - Vicki Wysocki, Ph.D., The Ohio State University