About
Biographies
Research Interests and Accomplishments
Dr. Nelson is the Director of Human Microbiology and Metagenomics in the Department of Human Genomic Medicine at the JCVI. Dr. Nelson has extensive experience in microbial ecology, genomics and metagenomics as well as in microbial physiology. Since joining the JCVI legacy institutes, Dr. Nelson has led several genomic and metagenomic efforts. She has also been involved in the analysis of the microbiota of the human stomach and gastrointestinal tract, and more recently led a metagenomics study on fecal material derived from three individuals.
Additional ongoing studies in her group include metagenomic approaches to study the ecology of the rumen and corals.
Dr. Nelson received her undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies, and her Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has authored or co-authored over 90 publications, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Microbial Ecology. She is also a standing member of the NRC Committee on Biodefense, and a member of the American Society for Microbiology Communications Committee.
Select Publications
Deboy, R. T., Mongodin, E. F., et al.
Insights into Plant Cell-wall Degradation from the Genome Sequence of the Soil Bacterium Cellvibrio japonicus
J Bacteriol. 2008 Jun 13;
Bek-Thomsen, M., Tettelin, H., et al.
Population diversity and dynamics of Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus oralis, and Streptococcus infantis in the upper respiratory tracts of adults, determined by a nonculture strategy
Infect Immun. 2008 May 01; 76(5): 1889-96.
Wei G, Lu H, et al.
From phylogenetics to metagenomics: what can we learn about the gut microbiota of giant panda?
Microbial Ecology. 2007 Jan 01; 54(1): 194-202.
Gill, S. R., Pop, M., et al.
Metagenomic analysis of the human distal gut microbiome
Science. 2006 Jun 02; 312(5778): 1355-9.
Deboy, R. T., Mongodin, E. F., et al.
Chromosome Evolution in the Thermotogales: Large-Scale Inversions and Strain Diversification of CRISPR Sequences
J Bacteriol. 2006 Apr 01; 188(7): 2364-74.
Bik, E. M., Eckburg, P. B., et al.
Molecular analysis of the bacterial microbiota in the human stomach
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 04; 103(3): 732-7.
Eckburg, P. B., Bik, E. M., et al.
Diversity of the Human Intestinal Microbial Flora
Science. 2005 Apr 14; 308: 1635-1638.
Fouts, D. E., Mongodin, E. F., et al.
Major structural differences and novel potential virulence mechanisms from the genomes of multiple campylobacter species
PLoS Biol. 2005 Jan 01; 3(1): e15.
Nelson, K. E., Fouts, D. E., et al.
Whole genome comparisons of serotype 4b and 1/2a strains of the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes reveal new insights into the core genome components of this species
Nucleic Acids Res. 2004 Apr 28; 32(8): 2386-95.