Keegan Kelsey, Ph.D, is a Director of Engineering at DNAnexus. Dr. Kelsey collaborates extensively across an organization (Product, Engineering, Scientific, Marketing, and Executive teams) to support the progress and development of products for integration and analysis of clinical and multi-omic data. He has over 8 years experience in the technology/biotechnology sectors with over 18 years experience in scientific research.
Dr. Kelsey received his doctorate from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 2016. He was an Insight Data Science Fellow in 2015 and was subsequently a Data Scientist at 23andMe. He received his bachelor's degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with additional post-baccalaureate education and research at the University of Iowa.
Past research efforts have involved a diverse array of topics in both human and model organisms, with direct bioinformatics, software engineering, and analysis experience in genetics, population genetics (germline and somatic), clinical/phenotypic data, -omic data (genomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic), and metadata such as annotations and ontologies. Currently, efforts are spent exploring, optimizing, integrating, and analyzing disparate data with emphasis on data-centric discovery and product delivery.
2009 - 2015Ithaca, NY
Field of Genetics, Genomics & Development
Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics
Biometry Minor
2005Chicago, IL
Visual and Critical Studies
2019 - presentMountain View, CA
DNAnexus provides a cloud-based platform to help integrate molecular and clinical data for downstream, scalable compute and production-grade monitoring and delivery of data. I work with a team of scientists and engineers to deliver a variety of product on the platform.
2015 - 2018Mountain View, CA
If you believe in the power of large-scale genetic research, which I do, then 23andMe should already be on your radar! 23andMe is a DTC company that helps customers access and understand their own genetic information. I help with various projects at the company. Want to know more? Just ask!
2015Palo Alto, CA
Insight Data Science is an intensive 7 week post-doctoral training fellowship bridging the gap between academia. Just prior to earning a PhD, I was a Fellow in the SV 2015A session at Insight. Here, I created a novel data project and used that project to interview with data-centric companies.
2009 - 2015Ithaca, NY
I was fortunate to be advised by Dr. Andrew G. Clark, a population geneticist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. My PhD work involved understanding the natural genetic architure underlying Position Effect Variegation (PEV), a proxy for epigenetic context in a genome. To this end, I generated experimental data and peformed end-to-end analysis of whole genome sequence data and RNA-seq from over 100 individuals. During this time, I was also a Teaching Assitant for Andy's course, Human Genetics, and for Chip Aquadro's course, Personalized Genomics and Medicine.
2005 - 2009Iowa City, IA
Prior to starting my PhD, I spent four years in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey C. Murray studying associations between genetic factors and preterm birth; a common, complex disease that impacts 1 in every 8 babies born in the United States. Mentorship from Jeff, (University of Iowa, past president of ASHG, Gates Foundation), a sense of discovery, potential impact, and a love for problem solving, were all strong reasons I developed a passion for research and the sciences. Here, I performed genetic and statistical analysis of preterm birth (work resulted in four publications), assisted in sample collection, sample processing, and database management for University-wide bio repository, and performed general lab procedures including; PCR, Taqman assay, Sanger sequencing and gel electrophoresis.