Maya is a Sensory Neuro-Biologist, 

2015, Yale University awarded her a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Physiology. At Yale, Maya studied how individual neurons of the vagus nerve respond to inflammation.
While the vagus nerve has intrigued scientists for centuries, it's only in recent years that technological advancements have provided the tools to study single cells in detail. Maya was one of the first trainees to use transcriptomics to study specific populations of vagal neurons. 

During her postdoc, these experiences allowed Maya to uncover a novel sensory neural circuit. After completing her Ph.D., Maya did her postdoc at Duke University. There, she focused on finding how the gut communicates sensory signals from nutrients to the brain. 
Then, in 2018, Maya authored a groundbreaking article in Science revealing the neural basis of a novel sense: The Gut Sense. This work has opened a new field of exploration in sensory neurobiology on how nutrients affect emotions and behavior through dedicated neural circuits. 

Maya's research aims to unveil the real-time communication between the gut and the brain.