Sacha Nelson

Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Life Science

Departments/Programs

Biology
Neuroscience
Volen National Center for Complex Systems

Degrees

University of California, San Diego, PhD.-M.D
University of California, San Diego, Ph.D.
Brown University, B.A.
Brown University, B.S.

Expertise

electrophysiology and gene expression in the mammalian nervous system.

Profile

Sacha Nelson's research focuses on understanding the cell types and circuits that comprise the mammalian neocortex, and how these circuits are altered by normal experience and during disease. His work employs a combination of electrophysiology, anatomy and mouse genetics and genomics to define cortical cell types and to identify alterations in cortical connectivity in epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders. Webpage

Courses Taught

BIOL	91g	Introduction to Research Practice
NBIO	146a	The Neurobiology of Human Disease
NBIO	148b	Cellular Mechanisms of Neuronal Excitability and Plasticity
NBIO	208a	Experimental Design and Analysis for Research Proposals
NEUR	91g	Introduction to Research Practice

Awards and Honors

Senior Fellow, HHMI Janelia Research Campus (2015)

GEAR (Grant of Excellence to Accellerate Research) award, Rett Syndrome Research Foundation (2007)

Society for Neuroscience Special Lecture (2005)

Henry Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty (1999)

Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1996)

Lange Medical Student Award, Medical Scientist Training Program (1991)

National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship (1991 - 1994)

Independent Concentration Prize (1983)

Scholarship

Erin A Clark, Michael Rutlin, Lucia Capano, Samuel Aviles, Jordan R Saadon, Praveen Taneja, Qiyu Zhang, James B Bullis, Timothy Lauer, Emma Myers, Anton Schulmann, Douglas Forrest, Sacha B Nelson. "Cortical ROR is required for layer 4 transcriptional identity and barrel integrity." Elife 9. (2020): e52370.

Levitan D., Liu C., Yang T., Shima Y., Lin J.Y., Wachutka J., Marrero Y., Ali Marandi Ghoddousi R., Veiga Beltrame E.D., Richter T.A., Katz D.B. and Nelson S.B.. "Deletion of Stk11 and Fos in BLA projection neurons alters their intrinsic excitability and impairs formation of long-term aversive memory." Elife 9. (2020): e61036.

Levitan D., Lin J-Y., Wachutka J., Mukherjee N., Nelson S.B., and Katz D.B.. "Single and population coding of taste in the gustatory cortex of awake mice.." J. Neurophysiol. 122. 4 (2019): 1342-1356.

Phillips J.W., Schulmann A., Hara E., Winnubst J., Liu C., Valakh V., Wang L., Shields B.C., Korff W., Chandrashekar J., Lemire A., Mensh B., Dudman J., Nelson S.B., and Hantman A.. "A repeated molecular architecture across thalamic pathways.." Nature Neurosci. 22. 11 (2019): 1945.

Sugino K., Clark E., Schulmann A., Shima Y., Wang L., Hunt D.L., Hooks B.M., Trankner D., Chandrashekar, J., Picard S., Lemire A., Spruston N., Hantman A., and Nelson S.B.. "Mapping the transcriptional diversity of genetically and anatomically defined cell populations in the mouse brain.." ELife 8. (2019): e38619.

Flores V.L., Parmet T., Mukherjee N., Nelson S., Katz D.B., Levitan D.. "The role of the gustatory cortex in incidental experience-evoked enhancement of later taste learning.." Learning & Memory 25. 11 (2018): 587-600.

Abraira VE, Kuehn ED, Chirila AM, Springel MW, Toliver AA, Zimmerman AL, Orefice LL, Boyle KA, Bai L, Song BJ, Bashista KA, O'Neill TG, Zhuo J, Tsan C, Hoynoski J, Rutlin M, Kus L, Niederkofler V, Watanabe M, Dymecki SM, Nelson SB, Heintz N, Hughes DI, G. "The Cellular and Synaptic Architecture of the Mechanosensory Dorsal Horn.." Cell 168. 1-2 (2017): 295-31

Moreno-Juan V, Filipchuk A, Antón-Bolaños N, Mezzera C, Gezelius H, Andrés B, Rodríguez-Malmierca L, Susín R, Schaad O, Iwasato T, Schüle R, Rutlin M, Nelson S, Ducret S, Valdeolmillos M, Rijli FM, López-Bendito G.. "Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing.." Nat Commun. 8. (2017): 1417

O'Toole SM, Ferrer MM, Mekonnen J, Zhang H, Shima Y, Ladle DR, Nelson SB. "Dicer maintains the identity and function of proprioceptive sensory neurons.." J Neurophysiol. 117. 3 (2017): 1057-106

Crittenden J.R., Tillberg P.W., Riad M.H., Shima Y. Gerfen C.R., Curry J., Housman D.E., Nelson S.B., Boyden E.S., and Graybiel A.M.. "Striosome-dendron bouquets highlight a unique striatonigral circuit targeting dopamine-containing neurons.." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113. 40 (2016): 11318-1132

Shima Y, Hempel CM, Bullis J, Taneja P, Mehta S, Sugino K, Lois C, Nelson SB. "A mammalian enhancer trap resource for discovering and manipulating neuronal cell types.." Elife 5. (2016): e13503.

Steinmetz C.C., Tatavarty V.,, Sugino K., Shima Y., Joseph, A., Line, H., Rutlin M., Lambo M., Hempel C.M., Okaty B.W., Paradis S., *Nelson S.B., and *Turrigiano G.G.. "Upregulation of µ3A drives homeostatic plasticity by rerouting AMPAR into the recycling endosomal pathway.." Cell Reports 16. 10 (2016): 2711-2

Choy JM, Suzuki N, Shima Y, Budisantoso T, Nelson SB, Bekkers JM.. "Optogenetic Mapping of Intracortical Circuits Originating from Semilunar Cells in the Piriform Cortex.." Cereb Cortex 2015. Oct 26 (2015): bhv258. [Epub ahead of print].

Clark EA, Nelson SB. "Synapse and genome: An elusive tête-à-tête.." Sci. Signal. 8. 396 (2015): pe2.

Guo Z, Tzvetkova B, Bassik JM, Bodziak T, Wojnar BM, Qiao W, Obaida MA, Nelson SB, Hu BH, Yu P.. "RNASeqMetaDB: a database and web server for navigating metadata of publicly available mouse RNA-Seq datasets.." Bioinformatics 31. 24 (2015): 4038-40.

Nelson SB, Valakh V.. "Excitatory/Inhibitory Balance and Circuit Homeostasis in Autism Spectrum Disorders.." Neuron 87. 4 (2015): 684-98.

Grange P, Bohland JW, Okaty BW, Sugino K, Bokil H, Nelson SB, Ng L, Hawrylycz M, Mitra PP. "Cell-type-based model explaining coexpression patterns of genes in the brain.." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111. 14 (2014): 5397-402.

Sugino K, Hempel CM, Okaty BW, Arnson HA, Kato S, Dani VS, Nelson SB. "Cell-type-specific repression by methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 is biased toward long genes.." Journal of Neuroscience 34. 38 (2014): 12877-83.

DeFelipe et al.. "New insights into the classification and nomenclature of cortical GABAergic interneurons.." Nature Rev. Neurosci. 14. (2013): 202-16.

Huang C.C., Sugino K., Shima Y., Guo C., Bai S., Mensh B.D., Nelson S.B., and Hantman A.W.. "Convergence of corollary discharge and proprioceptive streams onto multimodal cerebellar granule cells.." eLife 2. (2013): e00400.

Blackman M.P., Djukic B., Nelson S.B., and Turrigiano G.G.. "A Critical and Cell-Autonomous Role for MeCP2 in Synaptic Scaling Up.." J. Neurosci. 32. (2012): 13529-13536.

Katz D.M., Berger-Sweeney J.E., Eubanks J.H., Justice M.J., Neul J.L., Pozzo-Miller L., Blue M.E., Christian D., Crawley J.N., Giustetto M., Guy J., Howell C.J., Kron M., Nelson S.B., et al.. "Preclinical research in Rett syndrome: Setting the foundation for translational success.." Dis. Mod. & Mech. 5. (2012): 733-745.

Nelson, Sacha B. ; Ashe, Karen H.. "Neurobiology of Disease.." Curr. Op. Neurobiol. 21. (2012): 823-6.

Boggio K.J., Obasuyi E., Sugino K., Nelson S.B., Agar N.Y. and Agar J.N.. "Recent Advances in Single-Cell MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging and Potential Clinical Impact.." Expert Rev. Proteomics 8. (2011): 591-604.

Okaty B.W. and Nelson S.B.. "The maturation of firing properties of forebrain GABAergic interneurons." Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Developmental Neuroscience. 2011.

Okaty B.W., Sugino K., Hempel C.M., Nelson S.B.. "A quantitative comparison of cell-type-specific microarray gene expression profiling methods in the mouse brain.." PLOS One 6. (2011): e16493.

Okaty B.W., Sugino K., and Nelson S.B.. "Transcriptomics in the brain." J. Neurosci. 31. (2011): 6939-43.

Rutlin M and Nelson S.B.. "MeCP2: phosphorylated locally, acting globally.." Neuron 72. 1 (2011): 3-5.

Sacha Nelson and Ken Sugino. Methods for Suppression PCR. Patent US Provitional Patent Application 047364-070820-P.

Taniguchi H, He M., Wu P., Kim S., Paik R., Sugino K., Kvitsani D., Fu Y., Lin Y., Lu J., Nelson S.B., Huang Z.J.. "A resource of Cre driver lines for genetic targeting of GABAergic neurons in cerebral cortex.." Neuron 71. 6 (2011): 995-1013.

Luo L, Rodriguez E, Jerbi K, Lachaux JP, Martinerie J, Corbetta M, Shulman GL, Piomelli D, Turrigiano GG, Nelson SB, Joëls M, de Kloet ER, Holsboer F, Amodio DM, Frith CD, Block ML, Zecca L, Hong JS, Dantzer R, Kelley KW, Craig AD. "Ten years of Nature Reviews Neuroscience: insights from the highly cited.." Nat Rev Neurosci 11. (2010): 718-26.

Miller M.N., Okaty B.W., Kato S. and Nelson S.B.. "Activity dependent-changes in the firing properties of neocortical fast-spiking interneurons in the absence of large changes in gene expression." Dev. Neurobiol. 71. (2010): 62-70.

Dani V.S. and Nelson S.B.. "Intact long-term potentiation but reduced connectivity between neocortical layer 5 pyramidal neurons in a mouse model of Rett syndrome." J. Neurosci. 29. (2009): 11263-70.

Kadener S., Menet J.S., Sugino K., Horwich M.D., Weissbein U., Nawathean P., Vagin V.V., Zamore P.D., Nelson S.B., Rosbash M.. "A role for microRNAs in the Drosophila circadian clock.." Genes Dev. 23. (2009): 2179-91.

Kadener S., Rodriguez J., Abruzzi K.C., Khodor Y.L., Sugino K., Marr M.T. 2nd, Nelson S., and Rosbash M.. "Genome-wide identification of targets of the drosha-pasha/DGCR8 complex.." RNA 15. 4 (2009): 537-45.

Nagoshi E., Sugino K., Kula E., Okazaki E., Tachibana T., Nelson S.B. and Rosbash M.. "Gene expression dissection of the circadian neuronal circuit of drosophila." Nature Neurosci. 13. (2009): 60-68.

Okaty B.W. , Miller M.N., Sugino K., Hempel C.M. and Nelson S.B.. "Transcriptional and electrophysiological maturation of neocortical fast-spiking GABAergic interneurons.." J. Neurosci. 29. (2009): 7040-52.

Taneja P., Ojier M., Brooks-Harris G., Katz D.M. and Nelson S.B.. "Pathophysiology of locus coeruleus neurons in a mouse model of Rett Syndrome." J. Neurosci. 29. (2009): 12187-95.