Nikki received her BS in Business Administration from Villanova University, studying Marketing, French and International Business. She began her career in the life sciences industry with Pfizer and Genentech. Shortly after accepting her most treasured role, “mom”, Nikki fell systemically ill, including frightening neurodegenerative symptoms. After being diagnosed with Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme Disease), Chlamydia pneumoniae and other co-infections and receiving antibiotic therapy, she experienced remission.

Nikki is accelerating innovation in Infection Associated Chronic Illnesses (IACI), such as Alzheimer’s Disease, PANDAS/PANS, Asthma and others by building interdisciplinary research collaborations. In 2017 she Founded Intracell Research Group, LLC, to unite researchers, clinicians, and stakeholders across the globe. Nikki is a collaboration architect, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Alzheimer’s Pathobiome Initiative, Founding Director of a NEW Pathobiome Research Center at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) a co-investigator of a 3,200-patient asthma clinical trial (iTREAT-PC) and member of the Board of Directors of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Education Foundation. To date, Nikki has connected philanthropic funding to launch AlzPI research at 8 academic centers and generate preliminary data using the roadmap she co-lead authored, published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association (Lathe, Schultek, Balin et al., 2023), detailing an actionable, scientifically rigorous plan to unveil the potential role of microbial infections in dementia and other brain diseases.