diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index ec0b2bca..dab7829d 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Description: If you have a set of genomic ranges, this package can help you with
  exons, or intergenic regions. It also makes it easy to compare one set of
  ranges to another.
 Authors@R: c(
-	  person("Kristyna", "Kupkova", role=c("aut", "cre"), 
+	  person("Kristyna", "Kupkova", role=c("aut", "cre"),
     email = "kristynakupkova@gmail.com"),
     person("Jose", "Verdezoto", role="aut"),
     person("Tessa", "Danehy", role="aut"),
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ Authors@R: c(
     person("Jose", "Verdezoto", role="aut"),
     person("Michal", "Stolarczyk", role="aut"),
     person("Jason", "Smith", role="aut"),
-    person("Bingjie", "Xue", role="aut"), 
-    person("Sophia", "Rogers", role="aut"), 
+    person("Bingjie", "Xue", role="aut"),
+    person("Sophia", "Rogers", role="aut"),
     person("John", "Stubbs", role="aut"),
     person(given=c("Nathan", "C."), "Sheffield",
     email = "nathan@code.databio.org", role="aut"))
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Enhances:
 LazyData: true
 VignetteBuilder: knitr
 License: BSD_2_clause + file LICENSE
-biocViews: Software, GenomeAnnotation, GenomeAssembly, DataRepresentation, Sequencing, 
+biocViews: Software, GenomeAnnotation, GenomeAssembly, DataRepresentation, Sequencing,
             Coverage, FunctionalGenomics, Visualization
 RoxygenNote: 7.1.2
 URL: http://code.databio.org/GenomicDistributions
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 6be9b969..2a924a18 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ export(calcFeatureDist)
 export(calcFeatureDistRefTSS)
 export(calcGCContent)
 export(calcGCContentRef)
+export(calcNearestGenes)
 export(calcNearestNeighbors)
 export(calcNeighborDist)
 export(calcPartitions)
@@ -79,4 +80,4 @@ importFrom(utils,data)
 importFrom(utils,download.file)
 importFrom(utils,getAnywhere)
 importFrom(utils,globalVariables)
-importFrom(utils,installed.packages)
+importFrom(utils,installed.packages)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/R/nearest-genes.R b/R/nearest-genes.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f2363853
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/nearest-genes.R
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+#' Returns the distance for each range in x to its nearest neighbor 
+#' in y with directionality. That is, if the nearest neighbor is 
+#' upstream, it is denoted with a negative distance. Likewise, 
+#' downstream distances are reported as positive.
+#'
+#' @param x A GRanges object
+#' @param y A Granges object
+#' 
+#' @return A vector of nearest distances with directionality
+.directionalDistanceToNearest = function(x, y) {
+  # get distance to upsream and downstream
+  # with proper sign
+  distToUpstream = -1 * distance(x, y[precede(query, y)])
+  distToDownstream = distance(x, y[follow(query, y)])
+  
+  # calculate absolute distance and find nearest
+  nearestDist = pmin(abs(distToUpstream), abs(distToDownstream))
+  
+  # coerce upstream back to negative by
+  # finding where the upstream distance was
+  # chosen and force it back to negative
+  nearestDist[nearestDist == abs(distToUpstream)] = -1 * nearestDist[nearestDist == abs(distToUpstream)]
+  
+  return(nearestDist)
+}
+
+#' Given a query and set of annotations, this function will calculate
+#' the nearest annotation to each region in the region set, as well
+#' as the nearest gene type and the distance to the nearest gene.
+#'
+#' @param query A GRanges or GRangesList object with query sets
+#' @param annotations A GRanges or GRangesList object with annotation sets
+#' 
+#' @return A data table that contains observations for each genomic region
+#'         and the associated aforementioned annotations.
+#' @export
+#' @examples
+#' queryFile = system.file("extdata", "vistaEnhancers.bed.gz", package="GenomicDistributions")
+#' query = rtracklayer::import(queryFile)
+#' data(TSS_hg19)
+#' 
+#' queryAnnotated = calcNearestGenes(query, TSS_hg19)
+calcNearestGenes =  function(query, annotations, gene_name_key="gene_id", gene_type_key="gene_biotype") {
+  .validateInputs(list(query=c("GRanges","GRangesList")))
+  if (is(query, "GRangesList")) {
+    # Recurse over each GRanges object
+    annots = lapply(
+      query,
+      function(x) {
+        calcNearestGenes(x, annotations, gene_name_key=gene_name_key, gene_type_key=gene_type_key)
+        }
+      )
+    return(annots)
+  }
+  # calculate the nearest annotations to given query
+  nearestIds = nearest(query, annotations)
+  
+  # annotate nearest gene and type
+  nearestGenes = annotations[nearestIds]
+  
+  #
+  # use mcols to get the metadata columns as a
+  # a data frame and dynamically access the column 
+  # that way...
+  # this is used to circumvent the fact that we cannot
+  # dynamically access metadata columns inside a GRanges
+  # object like we can a dataframe:
+  #   col = "gene_id"
+  #   dt[[col]]
+  #   ^^^ This doesnt work in a GRanges object.
+  #
+  query$nearest_gene = mcols(nearestGenes)[[gene_name_key]]
+  query$nearest_gene_type = mcols(nearestGenes)[[gene_type_key]]
+  
+  # annotate on the distance as well
+  query$nearest_distance = .directionalDistanceToNearest(query, annotations[nearestIds])
+  
+  # dump a query to a data table and return
+  dt = grToDt(query)
+  
+  return(dt)
+}
+
+#' Given a query and reference assembly, this function will calculate
+#' the nearest TSS to each region in the region set, as well
+#' as the nearest gene type and the distance to the nearest gene.
+#'
+#' It is a wrapper around \code{calcFeatureDist} that uses built-in TSS 
+#' features for a reference assembly.
+#' 
+#' @param query A GenomicRanges or GenomicRangesList object with query regions
+#' @param refAssembly A character vector specifying the reference genome
+#'     assembly (*e.g.* 'hg19').
+#'     
+#' @return A data table that contains observations for each genomic region
+#'         and the associated aforementioned TSSs.
+#' @export
+#' @examples 
+#' queryFile = system.file("extdata", "vistaEnhancers.bed.gz", package="GenomicDistributions")
+#' query = rtracklayer::import(queryFile)
+#' 
+#' queryAnnotated = calcNearestGenesRef(query, "hg19")
+calcNearestGenestRef = function(query, refAssembly) {
+  features = getTSSs(refAssembly)
+  return(calcNearestGenes(query, features))
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/TSS_hg19.rda b/data/TSS_hg19.rda
index 077fa48e..9e7521be 100644
Binary files a/data/TSS_hg19.rda and b/data/TSS_hg19.rda differ
diff --git a/data/geneModels_hg19.rda b/data/geneModels_hg19.rda
index cd4d5ede..fa9c4661 100644
Binary files a/data/geneModels_hg19.rda and b/data/geneModels_hg19.rda differ
diff --git a/data/setB_100.rda b/data/setB_100.rda
index 45c93891..dc283d36 100644
Binary files a/data/setB_100.rda and b/data/setB_100.rda differ
diff --git a/data/vistaEnhancers.rda b/data/vistaEnhancers.rda
index e428c23d..33fc0328 100644
Binary files a/data/vistaEnhancers.rda and b/data/vistaEnhancers.rda differ
diff --git a/man/calcNearestGenes.Rd b/man/calcNearestGenes.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..82dcef03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/calcNearestGenes.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/nearest-genes.R
+\name{calcNearestGenes}
+\alias{calcNearestGenes}
+\title{Given a query and set of annotations, this function will calculate
+the nearest annotation to each region in the region set, as well
+as the nearest gene type and the distance to the nearest gene.}
+\usage{
+calcNearestGenes(
+  query,
+  annotations,
+  gene_name_key = "gene_id",
+  gene_type_key = "gene_biotype"
+)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{query}{A GRanges or GRangesList object with query sets}
+
+\item{annotations}{A GRanges or GRangesList object with annotation sets}
+}
+\value{
+A data table that contains observations for each genomic region
+        and the associated aforementioned annotations.
+}
+\description{
+Given a query and set of annotations, this function will calculate
+the nearest annotation to each region in the region set, as well
+as the nearest gene type and the distance to the nearest gene.
+}
+\examples{
+queryFile = system.file("extdata", "vistaEnhancers.bed.gz", package="GenomicDistributions")
+query = rtracklayer::import(queryFile)
+data(TSS_hg19)
+
+queryAnnotated = calcNearestGenes(query, TSS_hg19)
+}