Katie Long completed her undergraduate studies in Biomedical Science at Sheffield University before moving to The University of Edinburgh to undertake her PhD with Charles french-Constant at the MRC Center for Regenerative Medicine. During her PhD, she revealed the critical role of integrins in neural development using the chick as a model system. She subsequently expanded her work on extracellular matrix and neural development as a postdoc with Wieland Huttner at the MPI-CBG in Dresden, where she has developed a novel system to investigate and manipulate human neocortical development which has uncovered a novel role for the extracellular matrix in the folding of the human neocortex. She was awarded a King's Prize Fellowship and Professor Anthony Mellows Medal in 2018 and started as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology and MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders in 2019. She is currently an MRC Career Development Fellow.