Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Janna earned her PhD in Computational Biology from the Babraham Institute and Darwin College, University of Cambridge. She has since built a distinguished international academic career, holding postdoctoral positions at EPFL, University College London, and the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, and has been based in Switzerland since 2022 in her current dual role.

Her research focuses on AI methods that integrate knowledge representation, reasoning, and data-driven approaches, with applications in areas such as scientific evidence synthesis, biomolecular analysis, clinical decision support, and the interpretability and alignment of knowledge to support reproducible and responsible AI.

Janna shares that Idiap’s tagline resonates deeply with her own research vision, and that the Institute’s interdisciplinary, human-centered approach to AI aligns closely with her ongoing work and future ambitions.

She is joining Idiap alongside her research group and three major projects:

• GALENOS: A global initiative funded by the Wellcome Trust, focused on developing living evidence synthesis in mental health.
• MetaboLinkAI: A project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), using AI and federated knowledge graphs to enhance metabolomics analysis and natural product discovery.
• StrOntEx: Another SNSF-funded project advancing chemical language models and logical/graph-based models for classifying novel molecules, with a strong emphasis on integration and explainability.

At Idiap, Janna aims to advance research in AI for health by developing innovative methods across molecular sciences, automated literature review, clinical applications, and human–AI interaction.

The Institute is excited to have her on board and look forward to the advances she and her team will bring.