Yukiko received her BSc degree at the University of Toronto, then carried out her PhD work in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University. After her postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute, she joined the faculty of Biology Division, University of California, San Diego in 1997. She moved to the UK in 2002 as a Senior Group Leader in the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London. In 2011, she moved back to Japan to set up a group in RIKEN Brain Science Institute, a predecessor to RIKEN CBS. Besides pondering about synapses and running her lab, she enjoys art and dance and experimenting in the kitchen.

Further thoughts from her can be found in the following interviews:

[Neuron]

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.05.034

[JCB]

https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.1903pi