She earned a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry at the American University of Beirut with post-doctoral training in molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins where she worked with Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith; the Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first 10 years of her research career focused on energy impairment in neurodegenerative disease discoveries that lead to development of creatine as neuroprotective agent for the treatment of Huntington and Parkinson disease.