Dr. Horton grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, and studied chemistry and biology at Southern Illinois University, graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1987. In 1994, Dr. Horton graduated with a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. There, she studied biological chemistry, biochemistry, and x-ray crystallography under the joint mentorship of Prof. Ponzy Lu and Prof. Mitchell Lewis. Among other contributions, Dr. Horton determined the conditions for the difficult crystallization as well as the diffraction analysis that made the landmark structure of E. coli lac repressor bound to DNA possible (published in Science) possible. Dr. Horton then joined The Upjohn Company, a pharmaceutical company located in Kalamazoo Michigan, to develop potent inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase (1994-1996) working closely with Dr. Barry Finzel. She then went on to post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1996-2001) under the mentorship of Prof. John Perona, where she gained important skills in enzyme kinetics as well as expanding her x-ray crystallographic skills. Dr. Horton started her own lab at the University of Arizona in 2001 to understand many important questions regarding enzymes that operate on nucleic acids, as well as enzymes that regulate their activity via polymerization using biochemical, biophysical, and structural approaches. 

Dr. Horton also has strong interests in education and outreach, including in strengthening the scientific workforce through increasing diversity and inclusion. Current courses taught by Dr. Horton are a graduate class in professional development (teaching skills such as proposal writing and giving research presentations), an undergraduate class in the Molecular Basis of Life (MCB 301), and the outreach courses MCB 397A and MCB 397C. 

In her free time, Dr. Horton enjoys playing the cello, exploring the American Southwest, scuba diving, and spending time with her two children.