She grew up in Delhi, India, and obtained her medical degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Belgaum, India. This was followed by residencies at the Kasturba Medical College, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, both in India, and a faculty position at All India Institute of Medical Sciences. She moved to the U.S. to pursue a molecular pathology research fellowship at Harvard Medical School and subsequently went on to do an anatomic pathology residency at New York University Medical Center, and finally a neuropathology fellowship at Washington University as part of combined AP/NP training. She joined the Washington University faculty in 2011.