Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award

Shana KelleyShana Kelley received the Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award in a ceremony on Monday morning of Pittcon 2007.

Kelley was recognized for her outstanding achievements within 10 years of completion of her Ph.D. studies.

After receiving the B.A. in Chemistry from Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, Kelley went on to receive the Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1999.

Her primary research interests are in nanoscale biosensors and nanobiomaterials, and engineering cell-permeable compounds for biological research and medicine.

Currently a professor at the University of Toronto, ON, Canada, and Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, Kelley previously was an assistant professor at BC , a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Research Institute, and a research assistant at Caltech.

After receiving the award, Kelley gave a presentation entitled “Naoscale Electrode Platforms for Ultrasensitive Biosensing” in the Monday morning session that was arranged by Joanne Smith, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro.

“Nanostructured materials provide new platforms for biomolecular sensing that may provide increased sensitivity and amenability to miniaturization. However, the use of nanoarchitectures for electrochemical biomolecular detection represents an undeveloped area. Our laboratory recently developed methods for the electrochemical detection of nucleic acid and protein cancer biomarkers using a nanoscale electrode platform. Markedly improved sensitivity is achieved using our approach, and an electrocatalytic reporter system is applicable to both protein and nucleic acid targets.”

Other awards that Kelley has previously received include the NSF CAREER Award (2004), the Research Corporation Innovation Award (2000), and the Everhart Distinguished Graduate Student Award (1998).

Other presentations given during the session included talks on polymer electronics and soft-state biological ASICs.