Kelli Wilson | Acting Director, Research Services Core
NCATS/NIH

Kelli M. Wilson, Ph.D. is the acting Directof of the Research Services Core (RSC), within NCATS’ Division of Preclinical Innovation (DPI), where she focuses on collaboration with NCATS scientists who require support for multiple aspects of high-throughput compound screening using automated platforms as well as and other translational science projects. Her role involves overseeing the four groups within RSC: Automation, Compound Managment, Automated Cell Technologies and Scientific Imaging Support. Additionally, she leads multiple projects related to data science and data-sharing initiatives within DPI. Wilson joined NCATS in 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow under Craig J. Thomas, Ph.D. In this capacity, she conducted research projects using NCATS’ drug combination screening platform to find novel therapies for various cancer indications. These successful projects resulted in initiation of a clinical trial for a marizomib and panobinostat combination therapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma patients (NCT04341311) and collaborations with clinicians using the combination of M6620 with topotecan to treat small cell lung cancer (NCT0248709). Additionally, Wilson’s data science projects have focused on sharing NCATS screening data with various partners (e.g., the National Cancer Institute) to facilitate further research. Wilson earned her doctorate in cellular and molecular medicine from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and her Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from North Carolina State University. Her doctoral research focused on using patient-derived brain tumor cell lines for high-throughput screening to find novel therapeutics for glioblastoma.