Jessica Lynn Kelliher, PhD

Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics Faculty Rank: Post Doctoral Fellow Campus: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College: College of Medicine Department: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Cancer Research Interest

• Disease Site Focus: No Specific Disease Site
• Research Focus Area: Treatment, Prevention, Carcinogenesis
• Type of Research: Basic, Translational
• Research Keywords: DNA damage, H2AX, 53BP1, DNA damage response
• Research Interest Statement: My research interests include the DNA damage response and its modulation in cancer cells. I study the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair in order to discover new targets for cancer therapies and understand the mechanisms behind the current therapeutic strategies used in cancer treatments. I hope to be able to leverage the altered DNA damage response in cancer cells to selectively inhibit cancer cell growth while leaving healthy cells intact.

Contact Information

• Email Address: JKELLIHER@UAMS.EDU

Active Grants

• American Cancer Society, Inc. – PF-24-1321972-01-DMC
  “Exploiting DNA Damage Response Machinery to Combat T Cell Exhaustion”
  Principal Investigator
  1/1/2025 – 12/31/2027

Recent Publications

• Kelliher JL, Folkerts ML, Shen KV, [et al.]. Evolved histone tail regulates 53BP1 recruitment at damaged chromatin. Nature communications. 2024 15(1):4634. PMID: 38821984. PMCID: PMC11143218.
• Lee SO, Kelliher JL, Song W, [et al.]. UBA80 and UBA52 fine-tune RNF168-dependent histone ubiquitination and DNA repair. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2023 299(8):105043. PMID: 37451480. PMCID: PMC10413357.
• Kelliher J, Tackett A, Ghosal G, Leung JWC. New answers to the old RIDDLE: RNF168 and the DNA damage response pathway. The FEBS journal. 2021. PMID: 33797206. PMCID: PMC8486888.