Susan Searles Nielsen, PhD, MS

Most of Dr. Nielsen’s research is on environmental, pharmacologic, and occupational neuroepidemiology. She has a particular interest in Parkinson disease and ALS, with a special emphasis on understanding etiology and identifying approaches for prevention and treatment. Dr. Nielsen is also experienced in big data analysis, epidemiologic methods, and understanding contributors to pediatric and adult brain tumors. Collaborating with researchers at Washington University and other institutions, her projects include interview-based epidemiologic studies, as well as large, population-based studies using administrative claims data. Although most of her work is focused on understanding etiologic associations, other active areas of research include repurposing of existing medications for neurological diseases and the development of predictive models of neurological outcomes and essential covariates such as smoking.