Thorsten Kessler studied medicine at the University of Saarland and the Technical University of Munich and holds an MD degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology.
As a postdoc, he joined the groups of Jeanette Erdmann and Heribert Schunkert at the University of Lübeck to study the role of genetic variation in atherosclerosis and vascular remodeling. In addition to his scientific work, he completed clinical training at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in Lübeck, the Klinikum rechts der Isar, and the German Heart Centre, both in Munich.
He is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, cardiology, and intensive care medicine. Currently, he is leading a research group focusing on translational cardiovascular genomics at the German Heart Centre Munich, Technical University of Munich, where he furthermore serves as a senior physician in the Department of Cardiology. His recent scientific work focuses on the identification of novel therapeutic targets in atherosclerosis and vascular remodeling using genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics.