Draft:Paul Keim

Paul S. Keim is an American biologist who works across the disciplines of evolution, ecology, genetics, genomics, microbiology, conservation, microbial forensics, and biodefense at Northern Arizona University. His work and technology has been applied to identify the source of disease outbreaks, including the 2001 anthrax letter attacks and the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak. He is the Executive Director of the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, a Regents Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University, and a Distinguished Professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Keim joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University in 1989 and now holds the E. Raymond and Ruth Reed Cowden Endowed Chair in Microbiology. In 2003, he founded the Pathogen Genomics Division of The Translational Genomics Research Institute with laboratories in Flagstaff Arizona. Keim continues to hold the rank of Distinguished Professor at TGen and visiting researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Keim has published over 500 scientific and science policy papers in his career with an h-index of 114 and ~50,000 citations.

Training
Keim received his B.S. degree magna cum laude with majors in both Biology and in Chemistry from Northern Arizona University in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Botany in 1981 from the University of Kansas. His first two years of undergraduate education were at McPherson College where he studied Biology, Chemistry, drama, and played basketball. He also completed sabbatical in the Biosciences at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1996), Biology at the University of Costa Rica (2003), and Biology at the University of Oxford (2022).

He was a postdoctoral fellow with K. Gordon Lark in the Biology Department at the University of Utah from 1981 to 1987. He was greatly influenced by this dynamic environment with some of the world’s best researchers in bacterial genetics (John Roth), mouse genetics (Mario Capecchi), and biochemistry (Toto Olivera). Keim’s Utah projects included work on low homology genetic recombination driven by the recE or Red systems of E. coli and phage lambda, but also the initial studies into plant hybridization between cottonwood species and its impact on ecology.

At this same time, the University of Utah’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute was pioneering molecular markers to genetically map the human genome. This influenced Keim’s work and motivated a 2-year move to Iowa State University where he applied his molecular genetic skill set to soybean genetics and crop improvement. At ISU, he collaborated extensively with plant breeders, which furthered his genetics training in polygenic and quantitative trait analysis. This work generated the first genetic map of soybean and identified important quantitative and genetic loci control trait variation.

2001 anthrax letter attacks
In early October 2001, the FBI and the CDC engaged with Keim to investigate the anthrax letter attacks. His laboratory had DNA and biosafety capabilities that were unique and underdeveloped at federal USG agencies. For the next seven years, the Keim lab became one of the FBI’s investigative and evidentiary laboratories during the Amerithrax investigation.

In collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Louisiana State University, he had developed a DNA-based strain identification tool for Bacillus anthracis. MLVA was based upon hypervariable genomic loci mostly identified by genome scanning with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) techniques. Keim discovered that these loci contained short tandem repeated sequences that mutated at elevated rates by either insert or deletion of repeat copies. Similar approaches were being used for human identification by the FBI and had formed the basis for the investigation of crimes where human biological specimens were involved (DNA fingerprinting). A 1995 chance meeting with Dr. Bruce Budowle, an FBI scientist, at Los Alamos National Laboratory solidified Keim’s approach to bacterial strain identification that proved critical to the anthrax research and later the Amerithrax investigation.

In October 2001, the FBI and CDC sent a live culture of B. anthracis isolated from the anthrax letter victim Robert Stevens to Keim. His laboratory used the MLVA technique and identified the strain as GT62, which was the Ames strain. Dr. Alex Hoffmaster at the CDC had trained in the Keim lab and used the MLVA system in parallel and likewise identified the GT62 MLVA pattern. The Ames strain was common in US laboratories and used experimentally for testing drugs and vaccines. The strain identity was known prior to Steven’s death and shaped all subsequent investigative efforts.

Awards
Keim is an elected Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (2015) and of the American Academy for Microbiology (2005). The Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio) selected him as the Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year in 2012. Northern Arizona University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in May 2013. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas awarded him their outstanding alumni award in 2004. In 1999, he was awarded the NAU College Centennial Teacher of the Year award for his classroom and Native American educational efforts. The Arizona Daily Sun newspaper picked Keim as one of the Most Important Flagstaff Citizens Since Statehood

Early life
Keim was born in Twin Falls, Idaho to Rev. Robert E. Keim, Ph.D., and Sybil O. Keim (née Miller). His family moved frequently as his father served different Church of the Brethren congregations in Idaho, California, and Kansas. When he was six, his family relocated to McPherson, Kansas where he completed grade, middle, and high school. Grades 4 to 6 were in the two-room country schoolhouse “Harmony” that had two teachers educating eight different grade levels. He is an Eagle Scout and participated in the sports of basketball, cross country, and track. He graduated from McPherson High School in 1973. He was enrolled in Lawrence High School for his sophomore and junior years, while his parents pursued graduated degrees at the University of Kansas.

Personal life
Keim is married to Jenny Merete Keim (née Bate) and they have two children. His brother, Samuel M. Keim, M.D., M.S., was elected President of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and is Chair of the Emergency Medicine Department at the University of Arizona.