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General Information

Full Name Kian Kelly
Date of Birth 7th April 2000

Education

  • 2022-2025
    PhD, Plant Pathology
    University of California Riverside
    • Conducting research using metabarcoding and genomics approaches to explore the ecology, distribution, and genomic traits of extremophilic fungi in Southern California desert environments.
    • Discovered novel symbioses between ancient plants and fungi.
    • Sequenced and assembled
    • Mentoring undergraduate students by teaching fungal culturing techniques and bioinformatics methods, including data analysis using custom pipelines.
    • Advanced proficiency in R, Python, and Bash scripting.
    • Expertise in fungal culturing, DNA extraction, PCR, Illumina library preparation, and nanopore sequencing techniques.
    • Selected to present findings at the Annual Mycology Symposium, 2024.
    • {"GPA"=>"3.89 overall."}
  • 2018-2022
    Bachelors of Science, Biology
    Fort Lewis College
    • Graduated Magana cum Laude
    • Conducted research spanning molecular virology, organic chemistry, and mycology.
    • Developed skills in molecular cloning and PCR.

Work experience

  • 2021-2021
    NSF REU student
    Cornell University
    • Identified suitable conditions for preparation of plant membrane hormone transporter NPF3 for cryo electron microscopy using lipid nanodisc reconstitution and detergent solubilization.
    • Obtained 2D classes of detergent solubilized NPF3.
    • Generated recombinant baculoviruses possessing three orthologs of pannexin 2.
  • 2020-2021
    Research assistant
    Fort Lewis College
    • Helped construct a Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) mutant library using bacterial artificial chromosome recombineering.
  • 2021-2022
    Research assistant
    Fort Lewis College
    • Helped construct a CRISPR knockout library of the allopolyploid Arabidopsis suecica using golden gate cloning.

Teaching

  • 2022-2023
    Microbiology TA
    University of California Riverside
    • Served as the discussion instructor for over 100 introductory microbiology students.
    • Developed weekly lectures and helped administer exams.
  • 2019-2022
    Lead peer educator
    Fort Lewis College
    • Tutored students in all writing subjects.
    • Delivered presentations on scientific writing to peer educators and ran meetings.