Originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, Anna Johnning didn’t plan on a career in bioinformatics. As a teen gamer, she wanted to design computer games, but a high school course in cellular biology changed her mind.
Fascinated by how data could explain complex biological systems, she pursued a BSc in Bioengineering at Chalmers University of Technology, where she quickly realised that lab work wasn’t what she enjoyed most. What she liked a lot more was mathematics and statistics.
So, for her bachelor’s project, Johnning approached her statistics professor and asked if he could design a bioinformatics project for her. Working in a small team, she found herself combining biology with programming — and from that moment, she knew she had found her path.
“Since then, I’ve never looked back,” she says. “Bioinformatics is, without a doubt, my true calling.”
This led her to pursue an MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. After completing her master’s, one of her former professors, now a postdoctoral researcher, reached out about a PhD opportunity. At first, she was unsure about pursuing a career in academia, but she decided to apply, nonetheless.
Today, Johnning is an applied researcher at the Department of Systems and Data Analysis at the Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre, which focuses on applied mathematics and bridges the gap between academic theory and industrial application. She also conducts research at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology, where she continues to pair research with practical innovation.
Johnning and her team are combining the advances in AI with bioinformatics to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), one of the top global public health and development threats that kills over a million people annually. Source: Chalmers University of Technology
Her work centres on improving diagnostics for bacterial infections, a field where bioinformatics plays a crucial role. Antibiotics are meant to treat and prevent these infections, but antibiotic resistance has made that increasingly difficult. When bacteria evolve the ability to survive despite antibiotic treatment, once-manageable infections can turn into serious threats.
Through bioinformatics, Johnning studies the evolutionary processes that drive antibiotic resistance and contributes to the development of diagnostic tools that can identify bacteria and their resistance profiles more accurately.
Her team is now taking this research a step further by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into diagnostics. The goal is to use the vast amounts of data already generated in clinical laboratories and extract more meaningful insights from it. Typically, when someone has a bacterial infection, labs test the bacteria against different antibiotics to see which are effective — a process that takes time, especially with multi-resistant strains. “Our work uses variants of large language models to predict which antibiotics are likely to be effective based on very limited data,” Johnning says. “This could significantly speed up diagnosis and treatment, helping doctors find the right therapy faster.”
As her career has progressed, Johnning spends less time on direct data analysis and instead has taken on more supervisory and collaborative roles, guiding students who rely heavily on computational tools for their research. “The students I supervise often use national and local computer clusters,” she says. “These resources are important for students working with AI and training AI models, as those tasks are very resource-intensive.”
At Chalmers University of Technology, Johnning is now supervising students who often use national and local computer clusters. Source: Chalmers University of Technology
Looking back, Johnning believes her education at Chalmers played a key role in shaping her research approach. Teamwork was emphasised throughout her programme, especially in lab courses where collaboration was essential. “That combination of structured group work and voluntary collaboration definitely helps prepare you for research,” she says.
And without Chalmers’s fast-paced academic structure, she would not have learned how to adapt quickly. “Each course runs for just a quarter of the academic year, so you have to learn new topics fast,” she says. “That experience taught me how to approach new subjects and pick up new knowledge efficiently, a skill that’s invaluable in both academia and industry.”
Joining student union committees gave Johnning another set of skills: leadership and organisation. The work was demanding but deeply rewarding. “It taught me how to plan, collaborate, and take initiative,” she says. “It also taught me not to be afraid of hard work — I genuinely enjoyed it. I highly recommend students get involved in committee work because it builds practical and transferable skills.”
Looking ahead, Johnning hopes to stay in academia, continuing the research she loves while teaching the next generation of scientists. Her long-term goal is to see the diagnostic methods her team has developed being used in real-world settings, helping clinicians quickly identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “One of my favourite parts of my work is teaching, so I definitely hope that in 10 years, I’m still teaching and sharing knowledge with students,” she says.
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