Rate My Professor Kelly Kiejda

Associate Professor Kelly Kiejda, also known as Kelly Avery-Kiejda, serves as a Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellow and Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, specialising in Medical Genetics, within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She is an affiliated researcher in the Cancer program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. Her academic background includes a PhD in Medicine from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology with Honours from the University of Newcastle. Kiejda's research specialisations encompass molecular biology, particularly the function of the p53 tumour suppressor protein and its isoforms, microRNAs as prognostic tools, and genetic mechanisms contributing to chemotherapy resistance and metastasis in breast cancer and melanoma. Her work has identified subsets of microRNAs dysregulated in triple-negative breast cancer patients with lymph node metastases and explored p53 isoforms' roles in disease progression.

Kiejda has a distinguished career history marked by securing $4,732,636 in funding across 36 peer-reviewed grants as chief investigator, including lead roles in projects such as the 2018 Cancer Institute NSW grant for developing a predictive test for p53 isoforms in breast cancer ($552,460) and the 2019 Tour de Cure grant for a diagnostic test in melanoma ($200,000). She has supervised four PhD students to completion and currently supervises four PhD candidates, alongside undergraduate projects and lectures in the Medicine degree (MEDI1015 and MEDI1012). Her major awards include the HMRI PULSE Education Prize in 2010. Key publications feature a book chapter, 'Function of microRNAs in the cytoplasm' (2022, pp. 91-107), and peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications, Cancer Research, and Clinical Cancer Research. Kiejda's influence in the field is demonstrated by over 50 conference presentations, plenary invitations at events like the 2nd and 3rd International p53 Isoforms Workshops and the 22nd Annual Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting, board membership on the Australasian Metastasis Research Society and Hunter Cancer Research Alliance Steering Committee, and service as a reviewer for NHMRC project grants, Cancer Australia, Breast Cancer Now UK, Cancer Society NZ, and several journals.