[2][3][4][5] She is best known for her work comparing DNA from previous humans (i.e. Neanderthals) with those of the present (Homo Sapiens).

A previous challenge for computational biologists was the lack of proper DNA preservation and technology to analyze the nuclear genomes of the ancient humans.

This obstacle strengthened Kelso's interest in bioinformatics and initially approached the issue using the reference based method.

[2] She received her PhD in bioinformatics in 2003, from the University of the Western Cape, supervised by Winston Hide.

[2] At the Institute, Kelso conducted her research in collaboration with the UK Biobank (UKB).