Jessica Nelson

Jessica Nelson, Ph.D. serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine. She maintains dual graduate program affiliations with both the Cell Biology, Stem Cells, and Development program and the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Dr. Nelson's research program investigates fundamental mechanisms of behavioral plasticity, specifically focusing on how sensory thresholds are established and dynamically modified through experience. Her laboratory utilizes larval zebrafish as a primary model organism to study habituation - a conserved learning mechanism that allows organisms to increase sensory thresholds and filter out irrelevant stimuli. The acoustic startle response serves as her key behavioral paradigm, as zebrafish develop robust responses to auditory stimuli by 5 days post-fertilization.

Her research program addresses three critical questions:

• How post-translational palmitoylation through Zdhhc17/Hip17 drives plasticity in habituation learning
• What circuit mechanisms underlie habituation learning, using calcium imaging and whole-brain activity mapping
• How the nervous system actively limits plasticity to maintain appropriate behavioral thresholds

The Nelson Lab employs an integrative approach combining molecular-genetic techniques, cell biological analyses, and circuit-based methodologies to elucidate how neural circuits develop and adapt to regulate sensory processing. Her work has significant implications for understanding basic neural mechanisms of learning, sensory processing disorders, and neural adaptation to environmental stimuli.