Nicole Baumgarth is an expert on B cell responses to infection and the immunological mechanisms that regulate and control immunity to pathogens, with a particular emphasis on Lyme disease and influenza virus infection. As inaugural director of Johns Hopkins Lyme and Tickborne Diseases Institute, she leads institutional efforts to eliminate threats from tickborne diseases, such as Lyme, and studies why some immune responses to infections are successful and others are not.

Baumgarth is an expert on infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. She studies regulatory processes to compare successful and unsuccessful immune responses in order to learn more about how the immune system is derailed by infection. In addition, Baumgarth studies the long-term effects of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi in patients who do not fully recover and are left with ongoing symptoms even after the infection is cleared. Gaining an understanding of the mechanisms underlying these long-term effects and finding the targets of bacteria-induced immune suppression could lead to the development of therapeutics to more effectively clear infections without the use of antibiotics or in conjunction with antibiotics.

Baumgarth joined Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2022 from the University of California, Davis.