in 1974 from Southern Methodist University with a research focus on parasitology and development spermatogenesis in Hymenolepis diminuta, a rat tapeworm.
[2] He then went on to Harvard University where he studied basic and applied immunology and completed his Doctor of Science degree in 1979 with a thesis titled "Mechanisms of the Humoral Immune Response.
[1] In 1989, Kelsoe moved to the University of Maryland School of Medicine as an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology.
[1] Kelsoe and his collaborators have made a number of contributions to understanding the germinal center response, a transient cellular complex that supports rapid mutation in genes encoding the active B-cell antigen receptor.
This rapid mutation (hypermutation) is coupled with selection for mutated germinal center B cells that express higher affinity antigen receptors, a kind of somatic Darwinian evolution that improves protective antibody responses to pathogens.