Nelson Freimer

Dr. Nelson Freimer is Director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics and Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA. He also directs two UCLA core facilities (the Southern California Genotyping Consortium and the Biological Samples Processing Core) as well as the NINDS-funded Postdoctoral Training Program in Neurobehavioral Genetics. Dr. Freimer received an M.D. degree from the Ohio State University, and completed residency training in psychiatry (at UC San Francisco) and a postdoctoral fellowship in human genetics (at Columbia University). He joined the UCLA faculty in 2000 after 10 years on the faculty at UC San Francisco.

The research in Dr. Freimer's laboratory aims to identify the genetic basis of complex traits, particularly neurobehavioral phenotypes such as bipolar disorder, Tourette Syndrome, and temperament. Together with numerous collaborators the lab has centered its studies around three foci: 1) using genomewide genetic approaches to map neurobehavioral traits; 2) developing innovative approaches to phenotype neurobehavioral traits; 3) emphasizing the importance of population genetics for gene mapping, particularly the use of population isolates. Current studies in the lab include: 1) Phenomic investigation of neurobehavioral traits in large population samples. This project involves developing and applying new methods for genomewide investigations of multiple traits simultaneously, and is being undertaken under the auspices of the NIH Roadmap-funded Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics, of which Dr. Freimer is the Co-Director; 2) Endophenotype investigation of bipolar disorder in population isolates. This NIMH-funded project aims to map a wide range of quantitative traits hypothesized to underlie bipolar disorder, and builds on a longstanding international collaboration to genetically map susceptibility genes for bipolar disorder in two closely related population isolates, those of the Central Valley of Costa Rica and of Antioquia, Colombia; 3) Genetic association studies of Tourette Syndrome in population isolates. These NINDS-funded studies are being carried out in conjunction with the International Genetics Consortium of the Tourette Syndrome Association; 4) Genetic mapping of complex traits in a non-human primate model. These NCRR and NIMH funded studies are being carried out in collaboration with The Quebec Genome Innovation Centre.