[2] Allen is currently an associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Hearst Foundation Development Chair.

[4] She completed her doctoral degree in Neuroscience at University College London in the United Kingdom in the lab of David Attwell.

[6] Allen's research focuses on how astrocytes regulate synapses in the brain during disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

[5][7] In 2012 while she was a postdoc in the lab of Ben Barres, she showed that astrocytes secrete glypican 4 and 6, which is needed to create glutamatergic synapses between neurons.

[2] This technique allowed her to show that astrocytes make a protein that encourages the breakdown of connections between neurons.