He obtained his doctoral degree in Biophysics from the University of Michigan, where he worked with Richard Goldstein on protein designability and evolution. This was followed by postdoctoral research on the mechanisms and dynamics of gene regulation with Terence Hwa at the University of California, San Diego and then Frederick Cross at the Rockefeller University. Nick joined the Duke faculty in 2009. His lab uses an interdisciplinary approach (theory and experiment; physics and biology; synthetic and systems biology) to understand the diverse molecular and evolutionary mechanisms by which thresholds and combinatorial control, bistability and oscillation have evolved in biological systems.