Professor Keeney earned her B.S. in biochemistry from The Pennsylvania State University in 1985 and her Ph.D. in immunology from Washington University of St. Louis in 1990. Prior to her arrival at Juniata in 1994, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1991, she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society.
        Dr. Keeney teaches courses in microbiology, immunology, advanced genetics and molecular biology techniques. Additionally, she has developed a student-centered research program, securing funding from several outside sources including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Her main research interest involves the mechanism of transposition of the Ty retroelements of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast). She is the author and co-author of several articles and abstracts and has accompanied students to a number of national meetings.
        Dr. Keeney resides in Huntingdon with her husband Marty, and their two sons, Aaron and Paul. Her hobbies include running, hiking, canoeing and camping with her family, and gardening.

Courses taught

As a four-year college, Juniata has no masters or Ph.D. programs. Thus, research in my laboratory is conducted exclusively by undergraduate students, with a strong emphasis on integration of teaching and research. Students can become involved in the research process as early as the first year. Grant funded summer research fellowships allow our students to spend summers fully immersed in their research projects.

Our research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of transposition of the Ty retroelements of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). Our main focus involves studying the transposition process by isolation of host genes involved in high temperature transposition. A second project involves deciphering the mechanism of priming of reverse transcription, through mutational analysis of the primer tRNA and Ty1.

Research Grants:

NIH-AREA grant $182,829; 9/1008-9/1011
"The molecular function of RTT105, a regulator of Ty1 transposition in yeast"

NIH-AREA grant, $194370; 9/05-8/08

“Mobility Control of a yeast retrotransposon”

NIH-AREA grant, $123,650; 9/02-8/05

“The role of SIR4 in Ty1 retrotransposition”

NSF CAREER grant, $432,000, 10/97-9/03

“A Research Integrated Curriculum Involving a Molecular Study of Retrotransposition”

NIH-AREA grant, $75,000, 6/96-5/99

“Novel Host Genes Affecting Transposition”

Radford, Sarah J., Meredith L. Boyle, Catherine J. Sheely, Joel Graham, Daniel P. Haeusser, Leigh Zimmerman and Jill B. Keeney. 2004. Increase in Ty1 cDNA recombination in yeast sir4 mutant strains at high temperature.  Genetics.  168: 89-101

Keeney, J.B. 1998. Microorganisms in Molecular Biology. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Macmillan References Limited, Stockton Press, London.

Keeney, J.B., K. B. Chapman, V. Lauermann, D.F. Voytas, S. Astrom, U. von Pawel-Rammingen, A. Byström, and J. D. Boeke. 1995. Multiple molecular determinants for retrotransposition in a primer tRNA. Mol. and Cell. Biol. 15:217-226.

Keeney, J. B. and J. D. Boeke. 1994. Efficient targeted integration at leu1-32 and ura4-294 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Genetics 136: 849-856.

Sikorski, R.S., J.B. Keeney, and J.D. Boeke. 1993. Plasmid shuffling and mutant isolation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In "Molecular Genetics of Yeast: A Practical Approach. Ed: J.R. Johnston. Oxford University Press.

*John O’Donnell, *Brian W. Sykes, *Marie Gehman, and Jill B. Keeney. 2008. Regulators of ribonucleotide reductase inhibit Ty1 transposition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting.  July 22-28, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

*John O’Donnell and Jill B. Keeney.  2007. Measuring transposition when DNA repair genes are over-expressed.   Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting. Nov. 16-17 La Roche College, Pittsburgh PA.
1st  place undergraduate poster competition.

*Brian Sykes and Jill B. Keeney.  2007. Nucleotide concentration, reverse transcriptase, and Ty1 transposition in yeast mutants.  Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting. Nov. 16-17 La Roche College, Pittsburgh PA.

2nd place undergraduate poster competition.

*Mike Tolino and Jill B. Keeney.  2007. Visualizing the Ty1 element in S. cerevisiae with immunofluorescence microscopy.Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting. Nov. 16-17 La Roche College, Pittsburgh PA.

*Justin Neidig and Jill Keeney. 2006. Host genes regulating high temperature transposition of Ty1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting. Princeton, NJ; Allegheny Branch –American Society of Microbiology Annual Meeting. Latrobe, PA.

*Caleb Cassidy-Amstutz and Jill Keeney. 2006. Microarray analysis of Ty1 induction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting. Princeton, NJ.

Analysis of genomic localization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ty1 mobility events.  *Amber Ziegler and Jill Keeney. 2006. Mobile DNA.  Banff, Canada.(Travel scholarship award winner)

*Mary Heaton and Jill Keeney. 2004.  Induction of Ty1 at high temperature by deletion of RFX1, a repressor of damage-inducible genes.  Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting.  Seattle, Washington.

*Mark Lawery and Jill Keeney. 2004.  Mutagenic Screen for Ty1-tRNA primer interaction.  Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting.  Seattle, Washington.

*Meredith Boyle, *Sarah Radford, and Jill B. Keeney. 2003.  Increased Ty1 transposition in sir4 mutant strains at high temperature. Keystone Symposia: Transposition and other gene rearrangements.  Santa Fe, NM.