Cathy graduated from Imperial College in 2002 with a PhD in Genetics and completed her postdoctoral training with Prof. William Chia (MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, Kings College London) and Dame Prof. Linda Partridge (Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London).

She started her own research group within the College of Health & Life Sciences at Aston University in August 2016. In May 2023, she moved to join the School of Life Sciences at University of Warwick as Associate Professor.

Her scientific background covers ageing biology, cell signalling and Drosophila genetics.