David E. Nelson, PhD

Bio

Dr. Nelson completed his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin Young at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine where he studied peptidoglycan remodeling enzymes in Escherichia coli. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Harlan Caldwell's laboratory at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Rocky Mountain laboratories, where he trained in microbial pathogenesis. He joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the IUSM in 2013 where he directs a multidisciplinary research team that works in overlapping areas of microbial pathogenesis, immunology, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and clinical infectious disease.

One focus in the lab is the identification and characterization of Chlamydia trachomatis (the causative agent of the disease chlamydia) virulence factors that allow this pathogen to target specific tissues and circumvent immunity (NIH Grant 5R01AI099278). Long-term goals of this project are to gain mechanistic insights into the molecular basis of chlamydial pathogenesis and inform attempts to design an effective chlamydia vaccine. A second focus is discovery of new urogenital pathogens (NIH Grant 5R01AI116706). These projects apply powerful "omics" type approaches (microbiome, proteome, genome, transcriptome) to specimens from large clinical cohorts. Long-term goals of these projects are to clarify the etiology and epidemiology of several common, but idiopathic, urogenital tract syndromes to develop improved diagnostics and treatments. Most recently, the team has begun to investigate the natural history of Chlamydia trachomatis and (NIH Grant 1R01AI77002) and several other common STIs. Goals of these projects are to clarify the epidemiology of these STIs and determine why some men who are exposed become infected and develop disease, others are infected but do not develop disease, and some frequently exposed men are never infected.

Dr. Nelson’s is committed to mentoring young scientists and has trained dozens of graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical fellows who have gone on to successful careers in academic medicine and industry. Potential trainees are encouraged to contact Dr. Nelson by e-mail to hear more about current opportunities.