[1] Keller completed her master's degree at George Washington University and her Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cornell Medical College, where she investigated the formation and transfer of methyl groups in metabolisms for her dissertation.
[1] After this period, she investigated the process of making proteins in cells at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1949-1960).
[5][6] Keller's research paved the way for more productive in vitro experiments on protein synthesis after she introduced the use of radioactive leucine in the process.
[9] She found that the workings of transfer RNA is best shown through the cloverleaf model and had demonstrated it using pipe cleaners and pieces of Velcro.
[10] The cloverleaf model itself was one of the secondary structures for the first tRNA sequence that she developed with James Penswick, a student member of the Holley group.