Nicole Baumgarth

About

Nicole Baumgarth, DVM, PhD, is an Immunologist and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She leads efforts to eliminate threats from tickborne diseases, such as Lyme disease, and studies why some immune responses to infections are successful while others are not. Her research focuses on immunity to infections with Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, and influenza virus. She is the inaugural director of the Lyme and Tickborne Diseases Research and Education Institute. Dr. Baumgarth has a background in veterinary medicine and immunology, with education from the School of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. Her research interests include antibodies, B cell subsets, host-pathogen interactions, humoral immunity, and host response mechanisms. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the Neil L. Spector Memorial Award, election as a Fellow of the AAAS, and the Zoetis Excellence in Research Award. Her work has contributed significantly to understanding B cell responses and immune regulation in infectious diseases, with a focus on Lyme disease and influenza.

Research topics

• Immunology
• Intensive care medicine
• Medicine
• Pathology

Selected publications

• B Cell Activation and Response Regulation During Viral Infections

  Viral Immunology · 2020-04-23 · 102 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Acute viral infections are characterized by rapid increases in viral load, leading to cellular damage and the resulting induction of complex innate and adaptive antiviral immune responses that cause local and systemic inflammation. Successful antiviral immunity requires the activation of many immune cells, including T cells, natural killer cells, and macrophages. B cells play a unique part through their production of antibodies that can both neutralize and clear viral particles before virus entr…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2: Let’s Stick to Known Knowns

  The Journal of Immunology · 2020-09-04 · 88 citations

  reviewOpen access1st author

  The scale of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has thrust immunology into the public spotlight in unprecedented ways. In this article, which is part opinion piece and part review, we argue that the normal cadence by which we discuss science with our colleagues failed to properly convey likelihoods of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 to the public and the media. As a result, biologically implausible outcomes were given equal weight as the principles set by…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Toll-like receptor mediated inflammation directs B cells towards protective antiviral extrafollicular responses

  Nature Communications · 2023-07-05 · 34 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Extrafollicular plasmablast responses (EFRs) are considered to generate antibodies of low affinity that offer little protection from infections. Paradoxically, high avidity antigen-B cell receptor engagement is thought to be the main driver of B cell differentiation, whether in EFRs or slower-developing germinal centers (GCs). Here we show that influenza infection rapidly induces EFRs, generating protective antibodies via Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated mechanisms that are both B cell intrinsi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• B cells modulate lung antiviral inflammatory responses via the neurotransmitter acetylcholine

  Nature Immunology · 2025-04-22 · 18 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The rapid onset of innate immune defenses is critical for early control of viral replication in an infected host and yet it can also lead to irreversible tissue damage, especially in the respiratory tract. Sensitive regulators must exist that modulate inflammation, while controlling the infection. In the present study, we identified acetylcholine (ACh)-producing B cells as such early regulators. B cells are the most prevalent ACh-producing leukocyte population in the respiratory tract demonstrat…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A roadmap for defining “extrafollicular” B cell responses

  Immunity · 2025-09-23 · 18 citations

  reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Comparative Medical Science Training Program

  NIH · $5.5M · 1988–2027

• NIH Grant R01AI055881

  NIH · $1.5M · 2008

• NIH Grant P01DE016839

  NIH · $4.4M · 2009

Frequent coauthors

• Jonathan Lam

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  18 shared

• Leonore A. Herzenberg

  14 shared

• Zheng Luo

  Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

  13 shared

• Kimberly J. Olsen

  University of California, Davis

  12 shared

• Richard Szubin

  La Jolla Bioengineering Institute

  12 shared

• Ometa C. Herman

  11 shared

• Hannah P. Savage

  University of California, Davis

  10 shared

• Rosemarie H. DeKruyff

  Stanford University

  10 shared

Education

• post-doctoral fellow

  Queeensland Institute of Medical Research

  1996

• post-doctoral fellow

  Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

  1992

• PhD, Dept of Microbiology

  School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover

  1989

• DVM

  School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover

  1986

Awards & honors

• Neil L. Spector Memorial Award (2021)
• Lauren Brooks Hope Award (2019)
• Zoetis Excellence in Research Award (2018)
• UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow (2008 - 2012)
• Carl Norden Prize for most outstanding research during postg…

Similar researchers at Johns Hopkins University

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• Emma Camachoh-30
• Shengzhang Dongh-26