Rate My Professor Jessica Kissinger

Jessica Kissinger is the University Professor of Genetics and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia, appointed University Professor in 2025 and Distinguished Research Professor in 2017. Her research focuses on parasite genomics and the biology of genome evolution in parasitic eukaryotes, particularly apicomplexan protist pathogens including Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium species, and Plasmodium. She investigates nuclear and organellar genome evolution, systems biology of host-pathogen interactions, and develops databases, ontologies, and tools for data mining and integration of omics data such as genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and lipidome along with clinical and epidemiological metadata. Kissinger earned an A.B. cum laude from the University of Chicago in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Indiana University in 1995. Her postdoctoral training included an NSF/Sloan Post-doctoral Fellowship at the NIH/NIAID, a CNPq Post-doctoral Fellowship at CPqRR-FIOCRUZ in Brazil, and a position at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the University of Georgia in 2002 as an assistant professor in Genetics, advancing to associate professor in 2007, professor in 2012, and currently serves as Associate Chief Information Officer for Research. From 2011 to 2019, she directed the Institute of Bioinformatics, fostering interdisciplinary research in bioinformatics and computational biology.

Kissinger has received major awards including the Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award in 2024, Fulbright U.S. Scholar in 2022, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021, Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2020, Richard F. Reiff Internationalization Award in 2016, and Creative Research Medal in 2009. Her influential publications include 'MCScanX: a toolkit for detection and evolutionary analysis of gene synteny and collinearity' (Nucleic Acids Research, 2012), PlasmoDB: a functional genomic database for malaria parasites (Nucleic Acids Research, 2009), TriTrypDB: a functional genomic resource for the Trypanosomatidae (Nucleic Acids Research, 2010), and ToxoDB: an integrated Toxoplasma gondii database resource (Nucleic Acids Research, 2007). She contributes to leadership as a member of the NIAID ICEMR Scientific Advisory Group, Deputy Director of the African Centers of Excellence Global Council, former editor of Microbial Genomics, and member of the PeerJ Editorial Board. Kissinger has advanced UGA's high-performance computing resources and strategic initiatives to enhance research capabilities.