Stacia Nicholson

Priority area: Advancing STEM Diversity
Disciplines: Pharmaceutical Science and Toxicology; Public Health, air pollution exposure, neurological disease, lung injury, inflammatory immune response
Mentor: Dr. Debra Laskin
Mentor's Disciplines: Pharmacology and Toxicology, inflammation, macrophages, lung injury, immunology, toxic exposures.
School: Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Department: Pharmacology and Toxicology

Bio: Dr. Stacia M. Nicholson is a Guyanese-born American, Research Scientist, who received her education in Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science from the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at St. John’s University, Queens, New York. Earning a B.S. in Pre-med Toxicology ̶ with a minor in chemistry, a M.S. in Toxicology, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, she subsequently trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York. As a Fellow in the department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health, she received a NIH-funded award through the Irving Institutes for Clinical and Translational Research TL1 – training program in Precision Medicine. Her research utilized plasma isolated neuron-derived Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) in the investigation of the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and Alzheimer’s Disease. She also examined the role of EVs in racial/ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease. Her initial training being hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic, she pursued and was awarded the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship at Rutgers University. She will focus on studying how EVs mediate lung-brain crosstalk to link air pollution induced lung injury and neurological impairment. Lung injury has been clinically associated with brain injury in cases of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in newborns, acute respiratory distress syndrome in adults, and mechanical ventilation in the critically ill, showing that crosstalk exists. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Ozone have also been shown to impair lung function and contribute to cognitive impairment via some involvement of inflammatory immunological responses. Climate change and associated anthropomorphic activities may lead to greater and prolonged exposure to CO2 and Ozone, forecasting a rise in neurological diseases, making it critical to elucidate a mechanism of action to develop clinical interventions. Aside from research, Dr. Stacia M. Nicholson will co-teach Introduction to Research (fall 2024), at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, with Dr. Andrew Gow. Throughout her appointment she will continue to teach and looks forward to also mentoring high school students in the summer THED (Toxicology, Health, and Environmental Disease) program, offered through the Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute at Rutgers Health.