Dr. Nelson is a broadly trained drug chemist under the HICoE program with expertise in psychoactive drug discovery and advanced drug analysis. He earned his MSc and PhD degrees from USM and received professional research training at the University of Florida (USA) under the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program (2021-2022). Currently, he is a certified chemist under the Malaysian Institute of Chemistry and serves the university as a senior lecturer.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on discovering opioid-like, psychoactive, and neuroprotective alkaloids from selected Rubiaceae, Apocynaceae, and Loganiaceae plants and understanding their mechanism of action on the central nervous system utilising various cell-based and animal models for the treatment of pain, substance use disorders, and neurological disorders. Additionally, I am interested in developing UPLC-MS methods for drug and herbal analysis.