Research Focus:

Currently Nelson's research focuses on building deep generative models to integrate epigenetic, DNA sequence and molecular measurements, in order to better understand how changes in molecular biology, reflected in high dimensional transcriptomic data, might fundamentally link with alternative cellular characterizations. The Allen Institute provides a wealth of high-resolution taxonomies and molecular atlas for the human, mouse and NHP brains which clearly define cellular state. Leveraging these works and efforts with the BICCN as well as 4DN Nelson aims to identify cell type specific epigenic mechanisms that can be used as guides for viral gene therapies for neurodegenerative disease in humans as well as other species. Additionally, he is interested in the application of machine learning, especially deep learning, to domains such as agriculture.