Nikki graduated from Temple University with a neurobiology degree in 2020. At Temple, she worked in a neuroimmunology lab with Dr. Susan Patterson where she studied the CNS innate immune mechanisms underlying aging and infection mediated cognitive decline (i.e. delirium). She led studies examining hippocampal microglia and astrocytes and loved presenting her work at SFN. Nikki also did summer research in the lab of Dr. Arjun Raj at Penn in 2020 where she utilized computational pipelines to identify constraints on organoid morphology. She also had a short experience in a virology lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia before she joined the Stevens lab.Nikki is excited to work with Sam Marsh to understand microglia in the context of psychiatric disease using single cell sequencing. She is also excited by the opportunity to increasingly diversify her scientific perspectives in a community that excels at bridging different areas of neuroscientific study through collaboration at BCH and Broad Institute.