Nicole was trained in quantitative population and statistical genetics at the University of Milano, University of Dundee and University College London, where she applied genetic analysis to evolutionary studies of natural populations and human traits. She spent two years in the pharmaceutical industry in the US, applying human genetics to improve drug discovery and pharmacogenomics. She returned to the UK at the Sanger Institute, where she started her group in 2009. In 2013 she became adjunct faculty at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, and in 2015 was awarded a personal chair in Human Genetics.