Nicole J. Lake, PhD

Nicole’s research career reflects her long-standing interest in understanding how genetic variation contributes to health and disease. She commenced her postdoctoral training in 2019 in the Department of Genetics at Yale with Monkol Lek, where she has built and applied tools to improve the discovery of genetic causes of disease and variant classification, with a focus on the mitochondrial genome. Nicole completed her Ph.D. in mitochondrial research at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, where she used computational and experimental methods to discover genetic causes of mitochondrial disease. Prior to this, Nicole completed a M.Sc. (Genetics) degree at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, where she studied the genetic basis of cholesterol metabolism, identifying drug targets for cardiovascular disease. She also holds a B.Sc. majoring in Genetics from the University of Melbourne and the University of Edinburgh.

Nicole’s professional experience also includes university teaching, clinical genetic testing, media interviews, peer review, science outreach, as well as national, institutional, and departmental committee service.