Larry Keeley was born in South Bend, Indiana. He attended the University of Notre Dame and received his BS in Biology.  He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in Entomology in 1966, and joined the faculty of the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University as insect physiologist.  During his tenure as Professor of Entomology, he was also an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of Texas A&M University as well as a member of the Faculty of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a founding member and chairman for the Faculty of Neurosciences.  He retired in 2003 and is currently Professor Emeritus of Entomology. 

Dr. Keeley taught both graduate and undergraduate insect physiology and was selected Outstanding Undergraduate Professor for Teaching by the Undergraduate Entomology Student Organization.  He also taught a special graduate course in Insect Biochemistry and Endocrinology.  He chaired or co-chaired graduate committees for nine MS and twelve Ph.D. students, and directed research for two postdoctoral research associates and four research scientists.

His research interest was neurohormonal regulations of insect metabolism.  He investigated endocrine regulations of energy production, carbohydrate metabolism, and egg formation in both insects and shrimp.   He and his co-workers isolated and determined the structures for hormonally active insect neuropeptides, including a hormone (hypertrehalosemic hormone) that elevates insect blood sugar (trehalose) by stimulating the mobilization of carbohydrate stores (glycogen) in the fat body, an insect tissue analogous in function with the vertebrate liver. 

The research demonstrated the mode of action of the hormone at the cellular level.  The hypertrehalosemic hormone increases cellular calcium and inositol-1,4,5 triphosphate to act as second messengers for carbohydrate mobilization in the fat body.  The hormone also stimulated gene expression of a newly discovered insect cytochrome P450 gene in P450 family 4.  This gene was designated P4504C1.  P4504C1 was related to liver cytochrome P450 enzymes that cause w-oxidation of fatty acids.  The role of P4504C1 in insect metabolism is undefined.

Dr. Keeley published more than a hundred technical articles, book chapters, review articles and abstracts on insect fat body metabolism and neurohormonal regulations.

See: Awards and Publications

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