Member Biography

Dr. Kelley was appointed associate director of basic science research in 2005. Dr. Kelley, the Earl and Betty Herr Chair in Pediatric Oncology Research, also serves as a director of the Program in Pediatric Molecular Oncology & Experimental Therapeutics and co-leader of the Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Accelerator (CD3A). As associate director of basic science research, Dr. Kelley oversees all basic science activities of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, including stimulating interdisciplinary research collaboration, evaluating new research opportunities, and overseeing cancer center shared facilities. Dr. Kelley is also on the IU Ventures Investment and CTSI Drug Development to Commercialization committees and is chair of the IU Conflict of Interest committee. He is an AAAS Science Fellow.

In broader terms, all the academic positions he has held and the program leader and director positions he currently holds are dedicated to fast-tracking basic science, collaboration, and translational research to find more effective cancer treatments. Additionally, he helps equip the next generation of researchers by training and mentoring graduate students, MD and MSTP students, junior faculty, postdoctorates, fellows and others. He is also committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in his lab and the cancer center and IU School of Medicine. He strongly supports women in science and mentors scientists from many different backgrounds.

Dr. Kelley is also co- and contact PI of a recently funded NCI T32 Pediatric and Adult Translational Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Training Program (PACT-D3), which focuses on grooming the next generation of diverse, basic, and translational researchers with interests in cancer drug discovery and development.

Dr. Kelley’s studies have focused on the enzyme apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1/ Redox effector factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1)—mechanistically as well as a therapeutic target in cancers and other diseases where APE1/Ref-1 plays a role. APE1/Ref-1 is unique to the Base Excision Repair Pathway (BER), with dual repair and redox signaling functions that are crucial to cellular viability. He has concentrated on teasing apart these functions and in the process, has discovered and has been developing redox-specific inhibitors of Ref-1. This original work was the impetus for becoming chief scientific founder and officer of Apexian Pharmaceutical targeting Ref-1 to produce new therapeutics for some of the deadliest and hardest-to-treat cancers, as well as other indications. Apexian completed a Phase I clinical trial using oral APX3330 in solid tumor patients (NCT03375086). This trial established safety, expected PK, target engagement, and responses in patients in the trial. Also, a Phase II trial using oral APX3330, which was licensed to Ocuphire Pharma for DR, completed in 2023 (NCT04692688). Following a successful EOP2 meeting with the FDA, a Phase III trial in DR using APX3330 will be initiated. Dr Kelley and collaborators are also developing new chemical entities based on APE1/Ref-1 redox inhibition for future IND development and advancement to cancer clinical trials.

Dr. Kelley has been consistently funded by NIH for more than 31 years (since 1993) and is currently funded by three NCI grants as well as a NEI grant from NIH in addition to a number of other foundation grants. He directs the cancer center’s American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional grant, which has been in place for more than 50 years. He has 19 patents and more than 203 articles in peer reviewed journals as well as 36 review articles/book chapters in the fields of DNA repair, redox signaling and drug development.

Dr. Kelley earned his bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and received his doctoral degree in genetics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. He completed an ACS postdoctoral fellowship in molecular biology at Rockefeller University in New York in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Young, the 2017 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine, and was an assistant professor at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago prior to joining the IU School of Medicine faculty in 1993. In 2021, he was selected as a fellow to the prestigious AAAS Science Fellow association. Dr. Kelley and his wife are the parents of two children who have graduated from college and are pursuing their careers.