Kelly Knee, a senior scientist in the Rare Disease Research Unit of Pfizer, grew up in Jamestown, New York, a small town about 80 miles southwest of Buffalo. “The news reports are true,” she jokes. “There was a lot of snow, but it was character-building.” Her mother was a nurse and her father a ceramics engineer, which made science and medicine frequent topics of conversation for the family. “I remember my dad writing equations and diagrams on napkins at dinner, and my mom talking about her experiences [as a nurse],” Knee recalls. “They were both so enthusiastic about their work, it was easy to take an interest.” In school, Knee enjoyed participating in science fairs, and particularly liked studying biology and chemistry. She hoped that she would become an obstetrician when she grew up. “I thought that delivering babies would be a really fun job,” she says.
When Knee started college at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, she planned to major in chemistry and go to medical school after completing her undergraduate degree. In her sophomore year, however, she found herself drawn away from her original plan. “I started working in a molecular biology lab, and found that I not only was more interested in biology than chemistry, I was also more interested in research than medicine,” explains Knee. She decided to pursue her PhD rather than going to medical school.
After earning her BA in biology in 1999, Knee started a PhD program in Ishita Mukerji’s lab at Wesleyan University, as part of the Molecular Biophysics program. For her thesis, Knee used UV-resonance Raman spectroscopy to look at hemoglobin S polymerization. It was during this time that she developed an interest in human diseases caused by protein aggregation. Knee looks back on her time in Mukerji’s group fondly. “At the time I was working in her group, I thought it was extremely hard, but now that I am a few years removed, I’m really grateful for the training I got in her lab. When I’m writing a paper or preparing a talk, I often use ‘what would Ishita think of this’ as a benchmark for how much more work needs to go into it,” Knee says. “She has also been a great role model for me for what a woman in science can accomplish. She has a great family and at the same time has done great work in her field and is respected by her peers.”
“I have so far found that working in drug discovery is an excellent place for a biophysicist, as the projects generally require creative thinking and cutting edge techniques.”
Upon completing her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Knee began a postdoc position in Jonathan King’s lab, in the Biology Department at MIT. “The lab focus is on protein folding and aggregation, and my work in the group was primarily on the protein folding machine TRiC/ CCT and its influence on the folding and/or aggregation of proteins implicated in human diseases,” Knee explains. King recalls Knee’s positive influence in the lab. “Kelly was always very lively, full of energy and enthusiasm, with a bit of the engineer’s mentality that all problems can be solved,” he says. Oksana Sergeeva, who was a graduate student in King’s lab when Knee was there as a postdoc, has held onto many of the qualities Knee modeled for her at that time. “She was very good about setting up experiments that specifically answered the questions we were interested in and didn’t waste any time on less fruitful experiments or directions. She was always thinking of how to package work together as a story and what we needed to complete that story....she has taught me to be very critical about science. I never trust what people say but actually look at the data carefully and see what it says,” Sergeeva notes.
Knee joined the Rare Disease Research Unit at Pfizer as a postdoc, working on protein folding and aggregation, following her time in King’s lab. She became interested in protein folding chaperones and “how they influence the aggregation of the more and less well-understood aggregates formed by crystalline (cataracts) and huntingtin (Huntington’s disease),” Knee says. She worked with the group as a postdoc for a year before being promoted to her current position. Now she is working primarily on drug discovery efforts in the area of hematology.
During her training, Knee had planned on pursuing a career in academia. “I think the biggest challenge in my career so far has been trying to determine where to go with my interests and skill set. I originally had my sights set on a career as a professor, however, as I finished up my first postdoc, it became apparent that there were far more qualified candidates than jobs in academia, so I had to formulate a new plan,” says Knee. “I have so far found that working in drug discovery is an excellent place for a biophysicist, as the projects generally require creative thinking and cutting edge techniques. I find the fact that I can use biophysics and structural biology to better understand human diseases, and that my work might one day contribute to finding new treatments, to be extremely gratifying.”
When she is not working, Knee stays active; she plays squash in a league for young professionals and volunteers with a youth soccer organization in her neighborhood. She also loves to read, and in addition to stayng up-to-date on research, she reads something non-scientific on her daily commute. Knee tries to take advantage of living in a large city, as well. “I am lucky to live in Boston, where there are always new places to meet up with friends on the weekends,” she says. “I try to get out as much as possible.”
Knee would encourage biophysicists just starting out in their careers to keep their options open. “It’s important to keep an open mind about where your career will take you. When I first started graduate school, I was only interested in an academic career, but as I went through my postdoc and into my first job, I recognized all the opportunities that existed outside academia,” she explains. “The second piece of advice I would give younger scientists is the importance of having good mentors. I have been really fortunate to have had several really great scientists take an interest in me and my career, and I think that is a large part of the reason that I have felt empowered to take risks and try new things.”