Staff

Marissa Kosnik

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Dr. Marissa Kosnik

Group Leader

Department Environmental Toxicology

About Me

Head of the Systems Biology group (Tenure-track)

Research

My research background is in computational toxicology and bioinformatics, with a focus on human health. Here at Eawag, my group uses data integration and other computational approaches to characterise chemical impacts on aquatic organisms, including some of the same techniques used for human health risk assessment. I am interested in assessing the multiscale biological impacts of anthropogenic stressors within and across species in aquatic ecosystems. My research is divided into three interrelated topics:

1) Characterise differential population susceptibility to chemical exposures
Individuals within the same species may respond differently to the same chemical exposure depending on their genetic susceptibility. Characterising differential population response to chemical exposures is essential to help maintain genetic diversity of ecosystems and determine ecosystem resilience. My group forms linkages across different chemical, genetic, and phenotype databases to characterize and predict genetic susceptibility to chemicals in different species.

2) Identify shared and distinct biological response patterns to chemical exposures across species
Different species may respond similarly to the same chemical exposure. These similar response patterns can form the basis of cross-species extrapolation techniques to characterise chemical effects across organisms without in vivo testing. By integrating diverse data types with adverse outcome pathway data, my group characterises similar and different response patterns to chemicals across species to inform predictive models for cross-species extrapolation.

3) Determine the capacity for ecosystems to withstand chemical exposures without irreversible adverse effect
Anthropogenic chemicals are and will remain ubiquitous in our modern world, and some of these chemicals will inevitably make their way into the environment. My group integrates data and approaches from computational toxicology and absolute environmental sustainability assessment to determine regional thresholds for chemical pollution that are unlikely to lead to adverse effects.

Projects

Data-driven analysis and predictive modelling will be used to describe the potential for chemical pollution to impact genetically diverse populations.

TerraChem
Data integration, analysis, and visualization will be used to characterize genetic susceptibility to chemical pollution in zebrafish and C. elegans.

Characterizing genetic susceptibility to pesticides
Data integration and the AOP framework will be used to predict GxE interactions in pesticide-induced Parkinson disease.

Characterizing gene-environment interactions in human diseases
Data integration, network analysis, and computational AOPs will be used to characterize cross-species and cross-chemical mechanisms.

Building a library of chemical toxicity mechanisms

Curriculum Vitae

March 2023 - Present Group Leader in Systems Biology (tenure-track), Department of Environmental Toxicology, Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Dec 2020 - Feb 2023 Postdoctoral Researcher, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Sep 2019 - Sep 2020 Postdoctoral Researcher, SciLifeLab/Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Aug 2014 - July 2019 PhD Toxicology, North Carolina State University, North Carolina, USA
Aug 2010 - May 2014 Bachelor's Biochemistry, Bachelor's Chemistry, North Carolina State University, North Carolina, USA

Publications

Full publication list on Google Scholar

Kosnik MB, Antczak P, Fantke P. (2024) Data-Driven Characterization of Genetic Variability in Disease Pathways and Pesticide-Induced Nervous System Disease in the United States Population. Environmental Health Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14108. 

Kosnik MB, Schuwirth N, Rico A. (2024) Harnessing Computational Methods to Characterize Chemical Impacts on Biodiversity. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00865.

Kosnik MB, Kephalopolous S, Muñoz A, Aurisano N, Cusinato A, Dimitroulopoulou S, Slobodnik J, De Mello J, Zare Jeddi M, Cascio C, Ahrens A, Bruinen de Bruin Y, Lieck L, Fantke P. (2022) Advancing exposure data analytics and repositories as part of the European Exposure Science Strategy 2020−2030. Environment International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107610.

Kosnik MB, Hauschild M, Fantke P. (2022) Toward assessing absolute environmental sustainability of chemical pollution. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06098.

Kosnik MB, Enroth S, Karlsson O. (2021) Distinct genetic regions are associated with differential population susceptibility to chemical exposures. Environment International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106488.

Kosnik MB, Strickland JD, Marvel SW, Wallis DJ, Wallace K, Richard AM, Reif DM, Shafer TJ. (2020) Concentration-Response Evaluation of ToxCast Compounds for Multivariate Activity Patterns of Neural Network Function. Archives of Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-019-02636-x.

Kosnik MB, Reif DM. (2019) Determination of chemical-disease risk values to prioritize connections between environmental factors, genetic variants, and human diseases. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taap.2019.114674.

Address

E-Mail: marissa.kosnik@eawag.ch
Phone: +41 58 765 6739
Fax: +41 58 765 5802
Address: Eawag
Überlandstrasse 133
8600 Dübendorf
Office: BU E02
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Expert on

computational methods, data science, ecotoxicology, transdisciplinary research

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