He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from UCSF. As a graduate student he synthesized some of the first selective inhibitors of PI3-kinase and mTOR and used those tools to study signaling pathways involved in metabolism and cancer. He then performed postdoctoral research at the Rockefeller University, where developed methods for using RNA sequencing to identify functional populations of neurons in the mouse brain. His lab at UCSF studies neural circuits in the mouse that control feeding and other innate behaviors, using a combination of optical, genetic, and physiologic approaches.