- Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago
- B.S. in Chemistry from Caltech
- Developmental biology
- Genetics
- Molecular biology
Her research has investigated the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in regulating cell migration in the nematode C. elegans.
As a postdoctoral fellow in biology at Caltech, she studied the function of genes regulating cell migration during male gonadogenesis in C. elegans. She was supported by a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship.
Kato has co-authored articles that have appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, eLife, and Development.