Anne Thessen

Dr. Anne Thessen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine. She leads the Translational Environmental Science efforts as Associate Director of TISLab and co-leads the Data Management Core in BioData Catalyst. Her research focuses on integrating environmental, genomic, and clinical data using semantic technologies and knowledge graphs to understand disease mechanisms, particularly in complex conditions like Parkinson’s, asthma, and climate-sensitive disorders. She has pioneered methods for linking geospatial environmental exposures (e.g., cyanobacteria blooms, address histories) with health outcomes and uses AI to model gene-environment interactions. Recent work includes developing the Sequential SNP Prioritization Algorithm (SSPA) for plant genetics and advancing exposomics integration in biomedical research.

Dr. Thessen’s leadership roles include membership in the Environmental Health Language Collaborative and participation in the Banbury Center workshop on exposomics. Her lab’s public health focus extends to biodiversity impacts and biogeochemical cycling disruptions. Collaborations span environmental science, data science, and clinical research domains.