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Program Director
Genomic Epidemiology Branch, Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program
Telephone: 240-276-6944
Email: nelsons@mail.nih.gov
- PhD - Human Genetics, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- BS - Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Functional genomics
- Hormone related cancers
- Integration of germline and somatic information
- Mammographic breast density
- Rare cancers
Biography
Stefanie Nelson, PhD, is a program director in the Genomic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) of the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP) in NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS). Her responsibilities include developing and managing a portfolio of grants that focuses on host factors affecting cancer risk. Dr. Nelson's research interests include understanding the function of cancer risk variants and integrating germline and tumor genomic data to better understand risk and carcinogenesis.
Dr. Nelson is the DCCPS representative to NCI’s Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program. She is the program coordinator for the Breast Cancer Family Registry. She is also a member of the DCCPS Data Strategies Scientific Priority Working Group.
Dr. Nelson came to EGRP from The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc., where she was a research associate. In this capacity, she provided scientific support to several DCCPS programs, NCI's Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). She previously worked as a scientist at Meso Scale Discovery, where she identified novel activators and inhibitors of nuclear-factor kappa ß (NF-Kß) and developed assays to detect transcription factor and steroid hormone receptor DNA binding using the company's electrochemiluminescent detection technology. Earlier in her career, Dr. Nelson was a postdoctoral fellow in NCI's Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, where she studied signal transduction by growth factors implicated in cancer and identified new genes in growth factor signaling pathways.
Select Publications
Chao BN, Carrick DM, Filipski KK, Nelson SA. Overview of research on germline genetic variation in immune genes and cancer outcomes. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2022;31(3):495-506.
Gallicchio L, Daee DL, Rotunno M, et al. Epidemiologic research of rare cancers: trends, resources, and challenges. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2021;30(7):1305-1311.
Amos CI, Dennis J, Wang Z, et al. The OncoArray Consortium: a network for understanding the genetic architecture of common cancers. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2017;26(1):126-135.
Feigelson HS, Goddard KA, Hollombe C, et al. Approaches to integrating germline and tumor genomic data in cancer research. Carcinogenesis. 2014;35(10):2157-63.
Verma M, Rogers S, Divi RL, et al. Epigenetic research in cancer epidemiology: trends, opportunities, and challenges. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2014;23(2):223-33.
Weil CJ, Mechanic LE, Green T, et al. NCI think tank concerning the identifiability of biospecimens and "omic" data. Genet Med. 2013;15(12):997-1003.
Freedman AN, Sansbury LB, Figg WD, et al. Cancer pharmacogenomics and pharmacoepidemiology: setting a research agenda to accelerate translation. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2010;102(22):1698-705.