She received a BS, MS and PhD, all in biology, from Tokyo University of Science in 1999, 2001 and 2004, respectively. She moved to Harvard Medical School where she conducted postdoctoral research in biology and genetics from 2004-2005 with Mitzi Kuroda, PhD. In 2005, she continued postdoctoral research at Brandeis University in neurobiology with Paul Garrity, PhD. In September 2009, she began her own lab at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.