Krista McFarland received a BS in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD in behavioral neuroscience from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She then held an NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. She worked for three years as an associate professor of neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and then moved to ACADIA Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. McFarland's research interests include developing pharmacotherapies to alleviate motoric and nonmotoric (cognitive deficits and mood disorders) symptoms in pre-clinical models of Parkinson’s disease.