Kyli McKee

Kyli graduated with honors from American University’s Honors in Biology Program in 2020, earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Public Health. It was during her undergraduate studies that she began to envision a future in medicine that would be incomplete without deeper training in scientific research. Under the mentorship of Dr. John Bracht, Kyli led a bench-to-bedside research project aimed at identifying methylation-modulating drugs as potential therapeutics for colorectal carcinoma. She partnered with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to screen previously FDA-approved compounds for their demethylating potential in colorectal cancer. Her contributions earned her three competitive research grants: two Gloria A. Likins Endowed Scholarships and one NASA/CAS Mathias AU STEM Student Summer Research Award. 

To further immerse herself in translational research before pursuing graduate education, Kyli accepted a two-year postbaccalaureate position at the National Institutes of Health. In Dr. Forbes Porter’s laboratory at NICHD, she studied cholesterol homeostasis and lysosomal storage disorders, including Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC), Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS), and Juvenile Batten disease (CLN3). Her primary project involved collaborating on the development of a machine learning algorithm to identify potential genetic modifiers in the NPC community. This work revealed how vital computational tools and bioinformatics have become in advancing medical science. Recognizing the need for expertise at the intersection of biology and data science, Kyli concurrently pursued a Master of Professional Studies in Data Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Guided by her NIH mentor Dr. Christopher Wassif, she honed her skills as an independent researcher and critical thinker. Each day in the lab further affirmed her aspiration to combine medicine and research as a physician-scientist. 

Kyli matriculated into the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine to begin her medical training, always with the intention of returning to the NIH. Now, through the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program, she is excited to conduct her DPhil research under the joint mentorship of Dr. John Shern (NCI) and Professor Adam Cribbs (Oxford). Her project aims to integrate wet-lab experimentation with computational approaches to expand the functional proteome of rhabdomyosarcoma and identify novel regulators of tumor behavior.