Katherine Lelli received a BS degree in molecular genetics and a BA degree in German from the University of Rochester in 2006. She received her PhD in genetics and development from Columbia University in 2012. Her dissertation research in the laboratory of Richard Mann focused on the molecular mechanisms controlling DNA-binding specificity of the Hox family of transcription factors in Drosophila melanogaster. Katherine is interested in understanding how different regulatory mechanisms are integrated to achieve proper gene expression during cell fate specification events. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Huangfu laboratory she plans to use human embryonic stem cells as a model to study gene regulation during different stages of human development.