Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
Research Interests
Malaria; Plasmodium; Molecular tools and diagnostics; Serology applications for infectious disease surveillance; Intervention evaluation; Field diagnostics; India; Malawi; Ethiopia.
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Anne Kessler is an Assistant Scientist in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and the Program Director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is primarily interested in using innovative and appropriate delivery systems to apply molecular and serology-based technologies at the field level to address global public health problems. Currently, her scientific efforts center on using high-throughput molecular and serology-based tools to better understand malaria transmission, risk, and reservoirs and improve the utility and delivery of currently available interventions through field-based community studies and implementation research. She has served as the Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in India, a NIAID-funded International Center for Excellence in Malaria Research, for the past 7 years and continues to work with the Center in both a programmatic and scientific role. Her work with the Center includes establishing new field sites, training onsite laboratory and field-based personnel, and developing and implementing workflows for participant enrollment and sample collection, processing, and use in downstream applications. Other research interests include the development and evaluation of infectious disease molecular diagnostics, prognostic tests, and other laboratory tools; malaria pathogenesis and determinants of severe clinical syndromes; and understanding the impact of co-infections, including SARS-CoV-2, on malaria risk, transmission, and outcomes.
Honors & Awards
2008 Krauskopf Award for Academic Excellence, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dept. of Chemistry
2010 Research Fellowship in Microbiology, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation
2014-2017 Trainee in Education Connecting Laboratory Investigation and Population Science at Einstein (eCLIPSE), Albert Einstein College of Medicine
2016-2017 Science Alliance Ambassador for The New York Academy of Sciences
Select Publications
Select publications across research projects include:
Mohanty S, Jones AM, Dash S, Chhatria SR, Padhan TK, Mohanty S, Carlton JM, Ompad DC, Kessler A, Sahu PK. Genetic Characterization of Plasmodium falciparum Histidine-Rich Protein 2 Deletions and Their Impact on Malaria Interventions in Odisha, India. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2024 Dec 17:tpmd240330. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.24-0330.
Vera IM, Kessler A, Harawa V, Ahmadu A, Keller TE, Ray S, Taylor TE, Rogerson SJ, Mandala WL, Gil MR, Seydel KB, Kim K. Elevated thrombogenic autoantibodies in the pathogenesis of pediatric cerebral malaria. J Clin Invest. 2024 Apr 23;. doi: 10.1172/JCI176466.
Ompad DC, Padhan TK, Kessler A, Tozan Y, Jones AM, van Eijk AM, Sullivan SA, Haque MA, Pradhan MM, Mohanty S, Carlton JM, Sahu PK. The effectiveness of malaria camps as part of the malaria control program in Odisha, India. Sci Rep. 2023 Dec 28;13(1):22998. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46220-x.
Carlton JM, Eapen A, Kessler A, Anvikar AR, Hoffmann A, Singh OP, Sullivan SA, Albert S, Sahu PK, Mohanty S, Wassmer SC. Advances in Basic and Translational Research as Part of the Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in India. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2022 Oct 11;107(4_Suppl):97-106. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-1333.
Kessler A, Dankwa S, Bernabeu M, Harawa V, Danziger SA, Duffy F, Kampondeni SD, Potchen MJ, Dambrauskas N, Vigdorovich V, Oliver BG, Hochman SE, Mowrey WB, MacCormick IJC, Mandala WL, Rogerson SJ, Sather DN, Aitchison JD, Taylor TE, Seydel KB, Smith JD, Kim K. Linking EPCR-binding PfEMP1 to brain swelling in pediatric cerebral malaria. Cell Host Microbe. 2017. 22(5) 601-614.