Nicole Kordana
About Me
Nicole is a New England native, born and raised in Bernardston, MA. Nicole completed her B.S. in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Philosophy at Saint Michael’s College in 2018. During her time at St. Mike’s, Nicole worked under Dr. Donna Bozzone and Dr. Mary Beth Doyle on a multi-department project to make STEM education more effective for both educators and students, with a focus on aiding neurodivergent students, students with learning differences, and students with altered physical accessibility. After graduating, Nicole moved to Boston, MA to explore her interest in infectious diseases and immunology at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As an immunology research technician in the lab of Dr. Dan Barouch she used cellular based assays to assess protective efficacy of new vaccines and therapeutics for infectious diseases such as HIV. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Nicole aided the Barouch lab in some of the first SARS-CoV-2 research and worked on the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine (approved for emergency use). Nicole joined the MCB program at Dartmouth in 2020 and selected the Cramer lab in 2021 for her PhD dissertation research. She is interested in the disease pathogenesis of Aspergillus fumigatus related diseases and is currently exploring host-fungal interactions with a focus on leukocyte A. fumigatus biofilms.