The research interests of Edward J. Kennelly, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biology at The Graduate Center and Lehman College, are in the area of medicinal plants. Plants produce a myriad of unusual compounds known as phytochemicals that are useful to plants for surviving environmental challenges and to humans for medicines. The research conducted in Dr. Kennelly's laboratory examines phytochemicals for novel biological actions. He currently has two primary areas of research: phytochemical antioxidants and plants used for women's health.
Antioxidants are thought to be important in the prevention of various diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Dr. Kennelly has received funds from the National Institutes of Health to examine the antioxidant activity of less common tropical fruits and vegetables. This works includes the discovery of novel antioxidants in the tropical fruit sapodilla and the chocolate relative cupau. Three of Dr. Kennelly's graduate students have been awarded NIH predoctoral fellowships to study the antioxidant constituents of tropical fruits. Dr. Kennelly also collaborates with Dr. I. Bernard Weinstein at Columbia University's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center to examine the cancer chemoprevention potential of the phytochemicals from these fruits.
Dr. Kennelly's laboratory works closely with Columbia University's Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in Aging and Women's Health. He worked with the Center to look at estrogen-like phytochemicals in black cohosh, a botanical used widely in the US and Europe to treat menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes. In conjunction with researchers at Columbia and The New York Botanical Garden, he examined the levels of the phytoestrogenic isoflavonoid formononetin in thirteen populations of black cohosh. He found that formononetin, frequently cited as the biologically active constituent of this plant, could not be detected. He is currently conducting further research on black cohosh to better understand its phytochemical profile and mechanism of action.
Dr. Kennelly is the recipient of grants from the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create two computer classrooms specifically designed to teach biology, and also to link the Department's research equipment to the computer classrooms. This will allow a greater number of students to be exposed to state-of-the-art research tools.