Dr. Nicole Jimenez graduated in 2014 from Arizona State University with a B.S. in Microbiology. In 2015, she moved to Richmond, Virginia for Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program. Following, she joined VCU’s School of Medicine and defended her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology. Her graduate work with VCU’s Vaginal Microbiome Consortium (VMC) encompassed comparative genomics of vaginal bacteria, especially Bifidobacterium species, understanding correlations between the vaginal microbiome reproductive health and disease, as well as maternal-infant microbial transmission. In addition to Dr. Jimenez’s scientific work, she is a strong advocate in higher education in regard to the implementation of programs around the topic areas of diversity, inclusion, and mental well-being. She joined Dr. Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz's lab, an affiliate of the BIO5 institute, in the Summer of 2021 and is utilizing both her passion for advocacy work and science to assist with microbiome research of understudied gynecological conditions and cancers with a focus on health disparities within the Latinx and Native American communities. Her most current work, funded partially by the BIO5 Postdoctoral Fellowship, is investigating Fannyhessea species and their role in disease progression and modulation of the immunometabolic environment in both clinical cohorts and 3D cervical cell culture infection assays.
