Katie is a third year PhD student in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Program at the University of California Berkeley. She graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in Neuroscience in 2015. She then worked as a research technician for 2 years in the lab of Dr. Richard Axel at Columbia University where she studied innate olfactory circuits and behaviors in Drosophila. Katie is pursuing her thesis work at Berkeley in the lab of Dr. Helen Bateup, where she's investigating how various autism-related genetic mutations alter the physiology and function of the striatum and ultimately impact motor behaviors in mice. In her free time Katie likes to troll thrift stores for new paintings, listen to music, watch scary movies, and bake.