Kitty moved from Bangalore (one of the smaller Indian cities) to London (about half as populated) in 2016, to study Biochemistry at Imperial College. She did a year in industry at GSK, working on enzyme engineering and biocatalysis, which sparked an interest in using biology to make industrial processes more sustainable. She joined Alison Smith’s lab in Cambridge for a research MPhil, engineering microalgae to produce high-value compounds, and stayed on as a technician, tinkering with algal chloroplasts in various ways. Returning to her biochemistry roots, Kitty joined the Wallace lab for an EASTBIO-funded PhD in 2023, working on biocompatible chemistry using microbial hydrogen.