Biology Alumnus Nikki Nastasi becomes bone marrow donor

Nikki Nastasi, a 2011 Saint Francis University Biology graduate, who is a stem cell lab specialist at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for the bone marrow transplant team, recently became a bone marrow donor herself.

Prior to her studying biology at Saint Francis, Nikki had done a mouth swab in 2006 through Be The Match, operated by the national marrow donor program. It wasn’t until after she began her career at Children’s hospital that she was contacted as a donor match.

Her bone marrow transplant goes to a 3 year old boy with acute myeloid leukemia, a rare blood and bone marrow cancer.