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Roger H. Kennett, Ph.D.
Ruth Kraft Strohschein Professor of Biology, Cell Biology
On faculty since 1995

Phone: (630) 752-5317
Fax: (630) 752-5996
Email: roger.h.kennett@wheaton.edu
Education
1988
 M.S. Computer Education
University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
1969 – 71
 U.S.P.H.S. Postdoctoral Fellow – University of CA San Diego, Department of Biology
1969
 Ph.D. Princeton University (Biochemical Sciences)
1964-69
 U.S.P.H.S. Predoctoral Fellow - Princeton University
1964
 A. B. Eastern College (Biology)
 
Professional and Personal Interests
During my time at Eastern College as an undergraduate, I became fascinated with biology and decided to do graduate work in biochemistry at Princeton. This was primarily the result of the influence of Dr. Duane Sayles, a biology professor who often frustrated students by refusing to give definitive answers to questions but who would encourage us to figure things out for ourselves. In effect, in the liberal arts context, he taught us "how to learn."

After finishing my Ph.D. degree at Princeton and postdoctoral work at the University of CA, San Diego, I joined the genetics faculty at Oxford University for four years and then at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for 20 years. During my time at these universities my research was focused on the use of monoclonal antibodies to characterize antigens of tumor cells.

In 1995, I joined the Emeritus Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and came to Wheaton College. My goal in coming to Wheaton was to encourage undergraduates to "learn how to learn" - to become fascinated with the process of understanding God's creation as I had been encouraged at Eastern College as an undergraduate.

The focus of my life outside the university/college setting has been my family and our church. Carol my wife, is a Professor of Education and the Director of Graduate Programs in Education at Trinity International University in Deerfield. We attend Willow Creek Community Church and serve as pre-marriage mentors in the marriage ministry. We have three sons, two attended Wheaton College before we arrived here and the other attended Houghton College. We have recently been blessed with six grandchildren - all still under the age of 6. It is a joy to watch them grow and develop into wonderful "little people". During the summer we spend as much time as possible at our home in Ocean City, NJ preparing for the research and courses planned for the next academic year and also appreciating time to be with famliy and friends from our former church, Church of the Good Shepherd, near Philadelphia.

During the summer, I also enjoy reading poetry and riding the waves in the late afternoon after the crowds and the life guards have left the beach near our home.



Courses Taught

  • BIOL 241 & BIOL 242 College Biology I & II
  • BIOL 303 Contemporary Issues in Biology
  • BIOL 316 Populations & Evolution
  • BIOL 331 Animal Physiology
  • BIOL 362 Cell & Developmental Biology
  • BIOL 374 Bioinformatics
  • BIOL 385 Neurobiology
  • BIOL 494 Capstone - The Integrated Biologist

Membership in Professional Societies

  • American Association of Immunologists
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • American Scientific Affiliation (Fellow)
  • Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
  • Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Research
During the past three years my collaborative research with students has concentrated on two projects in collaboration with two Wheaton Alumni, (1) Dr. George DeVries at the Hines VA Hospital in Chicago and (2) Dr. Stephen Roberts at the Uniformed Services Hospital in Bethesda:

(1) Having identified antibodies reacting with nerve cells in sera of multiple sclerosis patients, we have been screening expression libraries to determine the antigenic targets of these antibodies. This work is being continued by a recent Wheaton graduate in Dr. DeVries laboratory.

(2) We have made antibodies against GABA receptor proteins that are expressed on human neuroblastoma tumor cells. Dr. Robert's lab has shown that the type of GABAr chains expressed on the childhood tumor neuroblastoma can be used to predict the response of the tumor cells to therapy regimens. The use of these antibodies for characterization of GABAr chains is being continued in Dr. Roberts laboratory.

Beginning this fall, we will resume work started at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine characterizing antibodies that induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in prostate cancer cell lines.

Papers Published and/or Presented

  • Characterization of the Specificity of Anti-Neuronal Antibodies in Sera of Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Elisa Takalo, Autumn Fox, George H. DeVries*, and Roger H. Kennett. The FASEB Journal 22: 668.3, 2008.

  • Presented at the International Society for Neurochemistry meeting, "Neural Glycomics and Lipidomics" in Antigua, West Indies, on December 1-5, 2006

Demyelinating Desease and Anti-Axonal Antibodies. R. F. Schwartz1, R. Kennett4, E. Takelo*4, D. Feinstein3, C. Kaiser4, S. Becker-Catania2, D. J. Bare2, G. H. DeVries*1,2.
1 Hines VA Hospital, Hines IL., 2 University, Anatomy & Cell Biology, Chicago, IL., 3 University of IL., Anesthesiology, Chicago IL., 4 Wheaton College, Biology, Wheaton, IL.

  • Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Neurochemistry in Portland, Oregon - March 2006

Anti-Axon Antibodies in Demyelinating Disease, Kennett, R.4, Takelo, E4, Lewis, P.4, Feinstein, D. L.3, Kaiser, C.3, Sharp, A.3, Becker-Catania, S.2, Nelson, J.2, DeVries, G. H.1,2.
1 Hines Va Hospital, Hines, IL., 2 University of Illinois, Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Chicago, IL., 3 University of IL., Department of Anesthesiology, Chicago, IL., 4 Department of Biology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.

  • Presented at American Society for Neuroscience 2005, Madison, Wisconsin, June 2005

Anti-axolemma antibodies in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis. Julie Nelson2,3, Tara D. Kinra1, Sara Becker-Catania2,3, Douglas Feinstein4, George H. DeVries2,3, Roger H. Kennett1.
1 Department of Biology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL., 60187, 2 Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL., 60141, 3 Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of IL., Chicago, IL., 60612, 4 Department of Anesthesiology, UIC, Chicago, IL., 60612.

  • Orshonsky, V. L., E. Misselt and R. H. Kennett. Sequestnce and expression patterns of a zebrafish mitotic licensing factor, MCM5. The FASEB Journal 17(5): A783, 2003.
  • Kennett, R. 2003. Technology Evaluation: WX-620, Wilex/Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Current Opinions in Molecular Therapeutics 5: 70-75.

  • L. Fan, J. Iyer, S Zhu, K. K. Frick, R. K. Wada, a. E. Eskenazi, P. E. Berg, N. Ikegaki, R. H. Kennett, and C. N. Frantz, 2001. Inhibition of N-myc Expression and Induction of Apoptosis in Human Neuroblastoma Cells. Cancer Research 61: 1073-1079.

  • Roger H. Kennett, 2000. Antibodies to target integrins expressed on tumor vasculature. Current Opinions in Oncologic, Endocrine & Metabolic Investigational Drugs 2000 2(4 376-380.

  • Roger H. Kennett, 1998. "Hybridomas and Monoclonal Antibodies" in Dictionary of Genetics, Salem Press, pp. 330-335.

  • Naohiko. Ikegaki, Xao X. Tang, Brian Kay, and Roger H. Kennett, 1996. Identification of epitope recognized by an anti-c-myc monoclonal antibody that cross-reacts with E. coli sigma factor using phage display libraries. Immunotechnology 2:37-46.

  • H. Ikeda, A. Pastuszko, N. Ikegaki, R.H. Kennett, and D.F. Wilson, 1994. 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) metabolism and retinoic acid induced differentiation in human neuroblastoma. Neurochemical Research. 19:1487-94.

  • Linda Engle and Roger H. Kennett, 1994. Cloning, analysis, and chromosomal localization of myoxin, the human homologue to the mouse dilute gene. Genomics 19:407-416.

  • A. Rosolen, L. Whitesell, N. Ikegaki, R.H. Kennett, and L.M. Neckers, 1991. Antisense inhibition of N-Myc reduces cell growth but does not affect C-Myc expression in the neuroepithelioma cell line CHP100. Prog Clin Biol Res. 366:29-36.

  • J. N. Iyer, J., N. , D.N. Krones, N. Ikegaki, R.H. Kennett, and C.N. Frantz, 1991. Regulation of gene expression in human neuroblastoma. Prog Clin Biol Res. 366:55-64.

  • Naohiko Ikegaki, Gretchen Temeles, and Roger H. Kennett, 1991. Modulation of protein expression associated with chemically induced differentiation of neuroblastoma cells. Prog Clin Biol Res. 366: 157-63.

Books:

  • Roger H.:Kennett, Thomas J. McKearn, and Kathleen B. Bechtol, eds., 1980. Monoclonal Antibodies, Hybridomas: A New Dimension in Biological Analyses. Plenum Press., New York.

  • Roger H.:Kennett, Kathleen B. Bechtol, and Thomas J. McKearn, eds. 1984. Monoclonal Antibodies and Functional Cell Lines. Plenum Press, New York.

Translations of Books Published:

  • Roger H.:Kennett, Thomas J. McKearn, and Kathleen B. Bechtol, eds.,1980. Monoclonal Antibodies., A New Dimension in Biological Analyses. Plenum Press. Russian translation, 1983.


Faculty continued: Dr. Fred Van Dyke



 

 

 		  
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