She earned her doctorate studying epigenetics and chromatin in Drosophila at Washington University, St. Louis. Postdoctoral fellowships at Davidson College and Harvard Medical School introduced her to synthetic biology. Today, her research aims to identify how the intrinsic properties of chromatin, the DNA-protein structure that packages eukaryotic genes, can be used to control cell development in tissues. Haynes received an NIH Young Faculty Award (K01) and an Arizona Biomedical Early Stage Investigator Award (AZ ESI). She is currently a councilor of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC), a SynBioLEAP alum, and advisor and judge emeritus for the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition. She is a two-time featured guest on PRI’s Science Friday.