Libusha Kelly

Libusha Kelly is an Associate Professor in both the Department of Systems & Computational Biology and the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding microbiome connections to human physiology through multi-system approaches, emphasizing microbiome chemistry, phage discovery, microbial ecology, and applications of large language models in biology. The Kelly lab explores how microbial ecosystems respond to internal and external perturbations, with implications for ecosystem health and drug metabolism.

Her work spans computational methods for microbiome analysis, phage-bacteria interactions, and predictive modeling of disease outcomes (e.g., sickle cell disease and COVID-19). Notable contributions include pioneering computational tools for viral protein annotation and uncovering microbiome-driven redox chemistry in gut communities. Her research bridges fundamental biology with translational applications, aiming to harness microbial systems for therapeutic insights.

Publications highlight interdisciplinary advancements in microbiome-drug interactions, phage ecology, and computational virology. Collaborations involve multi-institutional teams, as evidenced by co-first and co-corresponding authorships. Current research directions include expanding LLM applications in microbiology, advancing phage therapy understanding, and elucidating microbiome roles in complex diseases.

Lab activities include the Kelly Lab at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, focusing on systems-level microbiome studies. Future work aims to integrate computational and experimental approaches to address unresolved questions in microbial ecology and clinical microbiome applications.