Karmen enrolled at the University of Iowa in the iBio (Integrated Biology) Graduate Program in the Department of Biology in August 2012 to pursue her Ph.D. where she joined the lab of Dr. Joshua Weiner. Karmen has utilized multiple lines of transgenic and knockout mice as well as cell culture and biochemical techniques to study the molecular mechanisms used by protocadherins, a group of cell adhesion molecules, to regulate development of the nervous system.