About

Diane Kelly is Wilson Distinguished Professor at UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), where she conducts research, teaches, mentors students, and supports community building through service. Her expertise includes the history, foundations, theory, and practice of information and library science, as well as information interactions, behaviors, retrieval, and the design and evaluation of information environments. Kelly has a background with a BA from the University of Alabama, an MLS from Rutgers University, and a PhD from Rutgers University. Prior to her current position, she served as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Tennessee Knoxville from 2020 to 2024, leading academic personnel services, faculty hiring, review, tenure, promotion, and faculty development. From 2016 to 2020, she was Director and Professor in the School of Information Sciences at UTK, where she contributed to significant enrollment growth, the creation of a new bachelor’s degree in information sciences, and the school’s entry into US News and World Report’s Top 10 programs in the field. Kelly began her faculty career at UNC SILS in 2004, progressing through roles as assistant, associate, and full professor. She has held leadership roles such as chair of the ACM SIGIR, co-editor-in-chief of Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval, and served on the ALA Committee on Accreditation. Kelly is also recognized for her contributions to teaching and research, receiving multiple awards including the 2014 ASIST Research Award and the 2009 Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Microbiology
• Biology
• Pharmacology
• Biochemistry
• Genetics
• Veterinary medicine
• Botany
• Nuclear chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Stereochemistry

Selected publications

• Exploring medium and long arm extensions of 1,2,4-triazole derivatives as <i>Candida albicans</i> 14α-demethylase (CYP51) inhibitors

  RSC Medicinal Chemistry · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  1,2,4-trizole derivatives were designed to study their inhibition of Candida albicans CYP51 (IC 50 ), binding affinity ( K d ) and antifungal profile vs. wild-type and resistant model fungal strains comparable with posaconazole.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Paediatric meningitis in the conjugate vaccine era and a novel clinical decision model to predict bacterial aetiology

  Journal of Infection · 2024-03-27 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to assess aetiology and clinical characteristics in childhood meningitis, and develop clinical decision rules to distinguish bacterial meningitis from other similar clinical syndromes. METHODS: Children aged <16 years hospitalised with suspected meningitis/encephalitis were included, and prospectively recruited at 31 UK hospitals. Meningitis was defined as identification of bacteria/viruses from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or a raised CSF white blood cell count. New clinical decision rules were developed to distinguish bacterial from viral meningitis and those of alternative aetiology. RESULTS: The cohort included 3002 children (median age 2·4 months); 1101/3002 (36·7%) had meningitis, including 180 bacterial, 423 viral and 280 with no pathogen identified. Enterovirus was the most common pathogen in those aged <6 months and 10-16 years, with Neisseria meningitidis and/or Streptococcus pneumoniae commonest at age 6 months to 9 years. The Bacterial Meningitis Score had a negative predictive value of 95·3%. We developed two clinical decision rules, that could be used either before (sensitivity 82%, specificity 71%) or after lumbar puncture (sensitivity 84%, specificity 93%), to determine risk of bacterial meningitis. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial meningitis comprised 6% of children with suspected meningitis/encephalitis. Our clinical decision rules provide potential novel approaches to assist with identifying children with bacterial meningitis. FUNDING: This study was funded by the Meningitis Research Foundation, Pfizer and the NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cytochrome P450 168A1 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is involved in the hydroxylation of biologically relevant fatty acids

  PLoS ONE · 2022-03-21 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  The cytochrome P450 CYP168A1 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli followed by purification and characterization of function. CYP168A1 is a fatty acid hydroxylase that hydroxylates saturated fatty acids, including myristic (0.30 min-1), palmitic (1.61 min-1) and stearic acids (1.24 min-1), at both the ω-1- and ω-2-positions. However, CYP168A1 only hydroxylates unsaturated fatty acids, including palmitoleic (0.38 min-1), oleic (1.28 min-1) and linoleic acids (0.35 min-1), at the ω-1-position. CYP168A1 exhibited a catalytic preference for palmitic, oleic and stearic acids as substrates in keeping with the phosphatidylcholine-rich environment deep in the lung that is colonized by P. aeruginosa.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Abnormal Neural Responses During Reflexive Blinking in Blepharospasm: An <scp>Event‐Related</scp> Functional <scp>MRI</scp> Study

  Movement Disorders · 2020-04-06 · 15 citations

  article

  BACKGROUND: The neurophysiological disruptions underlying blepharospasm, a disabling movement disorder characterized by increased blinking and involuntary muscle spasms of the eyelid, remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the neural substrates underlying reflexive blinking in blepharospasm patients compared to healthy controls using simultaneous functional MRI and surface electromyography. METHODS: Fifteen blepharospasm patients and 15 healthy controls were recruited. Randomly timed air puffs to the left eye were used to induce reflexive eye blinks during two 8-minute functional MRI scans. Continuous surface electromyography and video recordings were used to monitor blink responses. Imaging data were analyzed using an event-related design. RESULTS: Fourteen blepharospasm patients (10 female; 61.6 ± 8.0 years) and 15 controls (11 female; 60.9 ± 5.5 years) were included in the final analysis. Reflexive eye blinks in controls were associated with activation of the right hippocampus and in patients with activation of the left caudate nucleus. Reflexive blinks in blepharospasm patients showed increased activation in the right postcentral gyrus and precuneus, left precentral gyrus, and left occipital cortex compared to controls. Dystonia severity negatively correlated with activity in the left occipital cortex, and disease duration negatively correlated with reflexive-blink activity in the cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS: Reflexive blinking in blepharospasm is associated with increased activation in the caudate nucleus and sensorimotor cortices, suggesting a loss of inhibition within the sensorimotor corticobasal ganglia network. The association between decreasing neural response during reflexive blinking in the cerebellum with disease duration suggests an adaptive role. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

  PublisherDOI

• Small molecule inhibitors targeting sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51): synthesis, molecular modeling and evaluation against Candida albicans

  2020-04-20

  preprintOpen access

  Systematic fungal infections caused by <i>Candida albicans</i> (<i>C. albicans</i>) are life threatening with mortality rates estimated to be between 46-75%. Triazoles, such as fluconazole, are the mainstay treatment for fungal infections, which inhibit ergosterol biosynthesis via inhibition of 14α-demethylase (CYP51). However, increasing incidence of resistance to azole

  PublisherDOI

• Degradation of a leather-dye by the combination of depolymerised wood-chip biochar adsorption and solid-state fermentation with Trametes villosa SCS-10

  Bioresources and Bioprocessing · 2020 · 17 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Nuclear chemistry
  • Organic chemistry

  Abstract Adsorption into biochar-derived materials and mycoremediation are promising technologies for removing dyes from solid and liquid matrices. This study presents a combined treatment with adsorption into wood-chip biochar and mycodegradation under solid-state fermentation by Trametes villosa for removing the leather-dye Acid Blue 161. In the first stage, untreated wood-chip biochar, NaOH–depolymerised biochar and KMnO 4 –depolymerised biochar were assessed for their dye removal efficiency by adsorption. KMnO 4 –depolymerised biochar exhibited the highest adsorption (85.1 ± 1.9%) after 24 h of contact. KMnO 4 –depolymerisation modified some physical and chemical properties on the untreated wood-chip biochar, increasing the surface area (50.4 m 2 g –1 ), pore size (1.9 nm), and presence of surface functional groups. Response surface methodology coupled with a Box–Behnken design was used to optimise the AB 161 adsorption into the KMnO 4 –depolymerised biochar. The optimised conditions, pH 3.0, dye concentration 100 mg L –1 and sorbent dosage 2 g L –1 , led to a higher dye removal efficiency by adsorption (91.9 ± 1.0%). In a second stage, the wood-chip biochar supplemented with nutrients (1% malt extract and 0.5% peptone) was employed as a solid matrix for growing T. villosa and regenerating the dye-saturated material. After 15 days, T. villosa was able to grow (86.8 ± 0.8%), exhibit laccase activity (621.9 ± 62.3 U L –1 ), and biodegrade (91.4 ± 1.3%) the dye adsorbed into the KMnO 4 –depolymerised biochar. Finally, the mycoregenerated biochar was reutilised in a new cycle of adsorption reaching 79.5 ± 2.0% of dye removal efficiency by adsorption. This study revealed the potential of the combined treatment and is an initial assessment for developing commercial alternatives for treating leather industry wastewaters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small‐Molecule Inhibitors Targeting Sterol 14α‐Demethylase (CYP51): Synthesis, Molecular Modelling and Evaluation Against <i>Candida albicans</i>

  ChemMedChem · 2020 · 23 citations

  • Stereochemistry
  • Chemistry
  • Microbiology

  values. Based on inhibitory activity and selectivity profile, the extended series are the better of the two series for further development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small molecule inhibitors targeting sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51): synthesis, molecular modeling and evaluation against Candida albicans

  2020-04-20

  preprintOpen access

  Systematic fungal infections caused by <i>Candida albicans</i> (<i>C. albicans</i>) are life threatening with mortality rates estimated to be between 46-75%. Triazoles, such as fluconazole, are the mainstay treatment for fungal infections, which inhibit ergosterol biosynthesis via inhibition of 14α-demethylase (CYP51). However, increasing incidence of resistance to azole

  PublisherDOI

• Degradation of a Leather-Dye by the Combination of Depolymerised Wood-Chip Biochar Adsorption and Solid-State Fermentation with Trametes Villosa SCS-10

  Research Square · 2020-10-07 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Widespread distribution of resistance to triazole fungicides in Brazilian populations of the wheat blast pathogen

  Plant Pathology · 2020 · 38 citations

  • Biology
  • Veterinary medicine
  • Genetics

  Abstract Fungicides have not been effective in controlling the wheat blast disease in Brazil. An earlier analysis of 179 isolates of Pyricularia oryzae Triticum lineage (PoTl) sampled from wheat fields across six populations in central‐southern Brazil during 2012 discovered a high level of resistance to strobilurin fungicides. Here we analysed azole resistance in the same strains based on EC 50 measurements for tebuconazole and epoxiconazole. All six Brazilian populations of PoTl exhibited high resistance to both azoles, with in vitro EC 50 values that were at least 35 to 50 times higher than the recommended field doses. We sequenced the CYP51A and CYP51B genes to determine if they were likely to play a role in the observed azole resistance. Although we found five distinct haplotypes in PoTl carrying four nonsynonymous substitutions in CYP51A , none of these substitutions were correlated with elevated EC 50 . CYP51B was sequenced for nine PoTl isolates, three each representing low, medium, and high tebuconazole EC 50 . Both PoTl CYP51A and CYP51B could complement yeast CYP51 function. All PoTl CYP51A ‐expressing yeast transformants were less sensitive to triazoles than the PoTl CYP51B ones. Transformants expressing PoTl CYP51A haplotype H1 carrying the R158K substitution were not more resistant than those expressing PoTl CYP51A haplotype H5, which is synonymous to haplotype H6, found in triazole‐sensitive P . oryzae Oryza isolates from rice blast. Therefore, the reduced triazole sensitivity of wheat blast isolates compared to rice blast isolates appears to be associated with a non‐target‐site related resistance mechanism acquired after higher exposure to triazoles.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Steven L. Kelly

  Swansea University

  173 shared

• David C. Lamb

  Swansea University

  82 shared

• Andrew G. S. Warrilow

  Swansea University

  58 shared

• Josie E. Parker

  Cardiff University

  47 shared

• Colin J. Jackson

  ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology

  23 shared

• Nicholas J. Belkin

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  21 shared

• N. J. Manning

  Dalhousie University

  20 shared

• Claire Price

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• 2024 UTK Excellence in Service Award as Vice Provost for Fac…
• 2021 ACM SIGIR Academy Inductee
• Best JASIST Paper of the Decades (2000s)
• 2018 East Tennessee Library Association Mary Utopia Rothrock…
• 2015 ACM Senior Member Recognition