As an undergraduate at Lake Forest College, IL, Sarah studied the role of hypothalamic neuronal populations in fear learning and the mechanisms of associative reward learning. After graduating college, she attained a Post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) to study opioid-seeking at the National Institute on Drug abuse in Dr. Yavin Shaham's lab.

After two years, she started her Neuroscience PhD program the University of Pennsylvania, combining a personal interest in nutrition with her research interests in neural mechanisms of reward-seeking to join a lab that studies of feeding behavior. In the Hayes lab, she is hopes to understanding how hedonic and homeostatic neuroendocrine mechanisms interact to render an individual more vulnerable to obesity and overeating.

Sarah Appleby

B.A. in Neuroscience and Psychology