Katja’s research program is focused on the mechanisms by which mammalian circadian clocks modulate metabolism and cellular proliferation and transformation by regulating a multitude of sequence-specific DNA binding transcription factors. Her group has made key advances in understanding the function of mammalian cryptochrome proteins, which are evolutionarily derived from light-sensing DNA repair enzymes and have adapted to respond to metabolic signals rather than light and to indirectly modulate cellular physiology via transcriptional regulation. Katja has been honored with a Searle Scholars Award from the Kinship Foundation and a Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Scholar Award.