Ann Kiessling
American reproductive biologist involved in stem cell research
Ann Kiessling (née Anderson; born March 29, 1942) is an American reproductive biologist and a researcher in human parthenogenic stem cell research at The Bedford Research Foundation. She was an associate professor in teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Faulkner Hospital, New England Deaconess, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) from 1985 until 2012.
Background
Kiessling was born Ann Anderson in Baker City, Oregon. Her father, William Charles Anderson, was a squadron commander in the US Air Force during World War II. She graduated in 1960 from Klamath Falls High School and attended Georgetown University from 1960 to 1962, then attended the University of Virginia from 1992 to 1964 where she received the first of her two bachelor's degrees in nursing. In 1966, she received her second bachelor's degree, in chemistry, from Central Washington University where the following year she also received her master's degree in organic chemistry. In 1971, she earned her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in biochemistry and biophysics. She did postdoctoral research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and University of California, San Diego. Kiessling has four children, 3 daughters and a son.
Career
Kiessling is noted for her discovery of reverse transcriptase activity in normal human cells. This report pioneered the importance of naturally occurring retrovirus sequences in human genes, now thought to be important to the genetic plasticity involved in human evolution and biology.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ann Kiessling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.