birth_place field article_title name alma_mater
jamaica microbiology genomics karen e. nelson
 karen e. nelson university of the west indies cornell university
karen e. nelson

dr. karen nelson is a jamaican-born american microbiologist , who is the current president of the j. craig venter institute -lrb- jcvi -rrb- .
she was educated at the university of the west indies and earned a ph.d. from cornell university .
dr. nelson is noted for her research on archaea at the institute for genomic research -lrb- tigr -rrb- which resulted in the publication of the genome of the bacterium thermotoga , which demonstrated the existence of horizontal gene transfer .
she was appointed president of jcvi in 2012 after serving as director of its rockville campus since 2010 .
her current research focuses on interactions between human microbiomes and various diseases .
she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in the field .
