Nelson B. Freimer, MD, is the director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge. A leading expert in neurobehavioral disorders, Freimer researches the use of novel strategies for behavioral phenotyping and large-scale genomics methods to identify the genetic basis of complex traits and neurobehavioral disorders like depression schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, and to track the trajectories of these disorders. This career-long focus on causation and trajectories informs the leadership, vision and expertise Freimer brings to his role as director of the Depression Grand Challenge and his role as the principal investigator of the Digital Mental Health Study sponsored by Apple, Inc.

In conjunction with his commitments to the Depression Grand Challenge, Dr. Freimer is the Maggie G. Gilbert Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics. He also is the founding director of the UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics and of the UCLA Neuroscience Genomics Core.