Contact
About Randy Nelson
https://medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/neuroscience/faculty-labs/randy-nelson-phd/
Positions
Professor & Chair
Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research
Director, WVU Center for Foundational Neuroscience Research &Education
Executive Director of Basic & Foundational Neuroscience Research, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute
- Organization:
- West Virginia University School of Medicine
- Department:
- Department of Neuroscience
- Classification:
- Faculty
Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research; Director, Basic Science Research
- Organization:
- West Virginia University School of Medicine
- Department:
- Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (SOM)
- Classification:
- Faculty
Member
- Organization:
- West Virginia University WVU Cancer Institute
- Department:
- WVU Cancer Institute Research Programs
- Classification:
- Faculty
Education
- PhD, Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
- PhD, Endocrinology, University of California, Berkeley
Publications
Follow our lab on Twitter: @DeVriesNelsonWV
[2024]
- Nelson RJ, DeVries AC, & Prendergast BJ. 2024. Researchers need to better address time-of-day as a critical biological variable. Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, 121: e2316959121. PMID: 39018194
- Liu JA, Bumgarner JR, Walton JC, Walker WH II, Meléndez-Fernández OH, DeVries AC, Nelson RJ. 2024. Chronic phase advances reduces memory and increases vasculature cognitive dementia-like impairments in aged mice. Scientific Reports. 14:7760. PMID: 38565934
- Walton, JC, Walker II, WW, Nelson, RJ, & DeVries, AC. 2024. Time of day bias for biological sampling in studies of mammary cancer. Scientific Reports 14, 848. PMID: 38191908.
- Liu JA, Walker II WH, Meléndez-Fernández OH, Bumgarner JR, Zhang Z, Walton JC, Meares, GP, DeVries AC, & Nelson, RJ. 2024. Dim light at night shifts microglia to a pro-inflammatory state after cerebral ischemia, altering brain-immune interaction and stroke outcome in mice. Experimental Neurology, 377:114796. PMID: 38677449.
- JC Walton, WH Walker, RJ Nelson, AC DeVries 2024.Time of day bias for biological sampling in studies of mammary cancer. Scientific Reports, 14: 848.
[2023]
- Moore-Ede M., Blask DE, Cain SW, Heitmann A, & Nelson RJ. 2023. Lights should support circadian rhythms: Evidence-based scientific consensus. Frontiers in Photonics: 4. doi.org/10.3389/fphot.2023.1272934
- JC Walton, RJ Nelson. 2023.Therapeutic aspects of circadian rhythms. Biomolecules, 13:1169.
- JR Bumgarner, EW McCray, RJ Nelson. 2023. The disruptive relationship among circadian rhythms, pain, and opioids. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17:1109480.
- Bumgarner JR, Walker WH, Quintana DD, White RC, Richmond AA, Meléndez-Fernández OH, Liu JA, Becker-Krail DD, Walton JC, Simpkins JW, DeVries AC, Nelson RJ. 2023. Acute exposure to artificial light at night alters hippocampal vascular structure in mice. iScience, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106996
[2022]
- Walker WH, Sprowls SA, Bumgarner JR, Liu JA, Meléndez-Fernández OH, Walton JC, Lockman PR, DeVries AC, Nelson RJ. 2022. Circadian influences on chemotherapy efficacy in a mouse model of brain metastases of breast cancer. Frontiers in Oncology, 11, 752331. https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.752331
- Bumgarner JR, Nelson RJ. 2022. Open-source analysis and visualization of segmented vasculature datasets with VesselVio. Cell Reports Methods, 2:100189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100189
- Nelson RJ, Bumgarner JR, Liu JA, Love JA, Meléndez-Fernández OH, Becker-Krail DD, Walker WH, Walton JC, DeVries AC, Prendergast BJ. 2022. Time of day as a critical variable in biology. BMC Biology, 20:142. https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-022-01333-z
[2021]
- Walton, J.C., Walker, W.H., Bumgarner, J.R., Melendez-Hernandez, O.H., Liu, J.A., Hughes, H.L., Kaper, A.L., & Nelson, R.J. 2021. Circadian variation in efficacy of medications. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 109:1457-1488. DOI: 10.1002/cpt.2073
- Nelson, R.J. Bumgarner, J.B., Walker, W.H., & DeVries, A.C. 2021. Time-of-day as a critical biological variable. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 127:740-746. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.05.017
- Meléndez-Fernández O.H., Walton J.C., DeVries A.C., Nelson R.J. 2021. Clocks, rhythms, sex, and hearts: How disrupted circadian rhythms, time-of-day, and sex influence cardiovascular health. Biomolecules. 2021 Jun 14; 11(6): 883. DOI: 10.3390/biom11060883.
- Liu J.A., Walton J.C., DeVries A.C., Nelson R.J. 2021. Disruptions of circadian rhythms and thrombolytic therapy during ischemic stroke intervention. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15: 675732. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.675732
[2020]
- Walker, W.H., Walton, J.C., DeVries, A.C., Nelson, R.J. 2020. Circadian rhythm disruption and mental health. Translational Psychiatry, 10:1-13. DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-0694-0
- Weil, Z.M., Fonken, L.K., Walker, W.H., Bumgarner, J.R., Liu, J.A., Melendez-Hernandez, O.H., Zhang, N., DeVries, A.C., Nelson, R.J. 2020. Dim light at night exacerbates stroke outcome. European Journal of Neuroscience, 52:4139-4146. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14915.
Recent Books
- Nelson, R.J. 2019. (Hormones and Behavior section editor). Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. Second Edition. Elsevier Major Reference Works, Oxford, UK.
- Nelson, R.J. (Editor). 2022. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Oxford University Press.
- Nelson, R.J. & Kriegsfeld, L.J. 2022. An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology. Sixth Edition. Sinauer Associates, An imprint of Oxford University Press: Sunderland, MA.
- Nelson, R.J. & Weil, Z.M. (Editors). 2023. Biographical History of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Springer Nature, New York.
- Fonken, L.F. & Nelson, R.J. (Editors). 2023. Biological Implications of Circadian Disruption: A Modern Health Challenge. Cambridge University Press.
- Nelson, R.J. 2025. Dark Matters, The Role of Light on Health. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Research Program
Neuroscience
Research Interests
Dr. Nelson holds the Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research in the WVU School of Medicine and is Director of basic neuroscience research in the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, as well as Executive Director of the WVU Center for Foundational Neuroscience Research and Education. He also serves as a professor and inaugural chair in the new Department of Neuroscience.
Dr. Nelson earned his AB and MA degrees in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned a PhD in Psychology in 1983, as well as a second PhD in Endocrinology in 1984, both from UC Berkeley. Dr. Nelson then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Reproductive Biology at the University of Texas, Austin.
Dr. Nelson served on the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University from 1986 until 2000, where he was a professor of psychology, neuroscience, biochemistry, and molecular biology. He then served on the faculty at The Ohio State University from 2000 - 2018, during which time he served as Distinguished University Professor, as well as the co-director of both the Neuroscience Research Institute (2014-2018) and the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program (2003-2009). He was also the faculty lead of the Chronic Brain Injuries Discovery Theme.
Dr. Nelson has published nearly 500 research articles and more than 10 books describing studies in biological rhythms, behavioral neuroendocrinology, and immune function. Current studies focus on circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are endogenous biological rhythms of about 24 hours and are a fundamental characteristic of life. Although life evolved over the past 3-4 billion years under bright days and dark nights, humans have been able to interrupt this natural light-dark cycle for the past 130 years or so with bright light at night. The laboratory studies the effects of these disrupted circadian rhythms on several parameters including immune function, neuroinflammation, metabolism, sleep, and mood. Current projects in the lab include: prenatal and early life effects of light at night on metabolism and immunity, and disruption of circadian rhythms on pain responses, as well as neuroinflammation associated with cardiac or cancer development and treatments.