Affiliations

Professor In-Residence, Human Genetics

Director, DNA Microarray Technology

Co-Director, Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

The Nelson Lab uses genomic approaches towards the study of complex human diseases. We have several research programs to discover genetic variants that underly Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, and Vertigo. These projects use linkage, linkage disequilibrium and association approaches in hundreds of affected sibling pair families. The laboratory also studies the genetic causes of glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of primary brain cancer, using large scale gene expression analysis, alternative splicing analysis and chromosomal loss information, and is developing bioinformatic approaches to use this information to identify and prioritize novel therapeutic targets. We are also developing novel technologies based on shape encoding to allow highly multiplexed cellular and molecular assays. All of these projects require a host of integrated bioinformatics approaches which rely on a large and growing repository of gene expression, sequence, and polymorphism information from human and mouse tissues.

Stanley F. Nelson, MD is Professor and Vice Chair of Human Genetics and Professor of Psychiatry within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where he has been on faculty since 1993. Prof. Nelson attended the University of Michigan and obtained a BS degree in Physics in 1982. He graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1987 and completed an ITT International Fellowship to Sweden in the Laboratory of George Klein. He was trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at UCSF School of Medicine, and subsequently trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Patrick Brown from 1990-1993 where he developed genomic mismatch scanning and initiated the lab development of DNA microarrays for genomic applications. At UCLA, Prof. Nelson has continued to be interested in technology development and application of genomics to cancer biology and common human diseases with active research areas in Autism, ADHD, vertigo and brain cancers. He developed and led the first genomics core on UCLA campus ( UCLA DNA Microarray Facility). He led the whole genome expression array analysis for the NIH Neuroscience Blueprint. With a team in Pathology and Pediatrics, he implemented whole exome sequencing for clinical purposes in 2011.  He formed the Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in 2007 with Drs. Miceli and Spencer that has grown into a unique center that provides coordinated patient care, access to clinical trials, translational and basic research, and educational opportunities on campus.  In 2014, he initiated with others, the Undiagnosed Diseases Network UCLA Clinical Site to improve diagnosis of individuals with difficult to diagnose genetic disorders.  His laboratory continues to develop and use genomic techology to pursue biological insights that lead to new therapeutic interventions in humans. 

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