Biography

Jennifer Wessel is an Associate Professor and Lilly scholar of genomic epidemiology in the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health. She received her PhD in genetic epidemiology from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego State University School of Public Health, a Master’s of Public Health in Epidemiology and a Bachelors of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona. She furthered her training as a post-doctoral fellow at Scripps Genomic Medicine Institute. During her post-doctoral training, she was recruited to be the first scientist at a direct-to-consumer personalized genetics company, Navigenics.

Research Interests

Dr. Wessel’s primary research area is cardiovascular genomic epidemiology. Her research involves identifying novel genomic risk factors for coronary heart disease and related outcomes, disease-gene associations for coronary heart disease pharmacologic endpoints, developing innovative public health interventions to promote healthy lifestyles through personalized interventions and risk communication based on individual’s genetic and lifestyle profiles, and developing epidemiologic and statistical methods for genomic data.

Courses Taught

  • E610 Chronic Disease Epidemiology
  • E629 Genetic Epidemiology
  • E775 Doctoral Seminar
  • E795 Cardiovascular Epidemiology
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