[1] He pursued his medical training in Paris, where he worked at the Pasteur Institute from 1920 to 1939, where he started as Assistant, then advancing to Associate, and finally to Head of Laboratory.

The two were the first researchers to conduct experimental studies of the Borna disease in sheep and cattle and to describe the characteristics of this enzootic encephalomyelitis.

[1] Nicolau and Galloway were also the first to identify the sensitivity of the Borna disease virus to lipid solvents, an observation confirmed more than 70 years later.

Together with his disciples, Radu Portocală [ro] and Nicolae Cajal, he began to recruit researchers to work on isolation and cultivation of human and animal viruses.

[6] His daughter, Alexandra, was born in Bucharest in 1940, and later, known as Käty van der Mije-Nicolau, became a chess player and Woman Grandmaster.