She studied chemistry at the University of Neuchâtel (CH) and achieved her degree of chemical engineer cum laude.  
She completed her PhD in 1980 (silver medal for the best thesis) at the Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (CH), where she worked as an assistant until 1982.

She joined the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich in 1983, where she stayed until 1998. She was appointed lecturer at the University of Zurich in 1996.

In 1998, she was appointed head of the Unit for Research in Schizophrenia, which was set up at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Lausanne (CH). One of the innovative aspects of her research lies in the integration of recent neurobiological data into a psychiatric disorder. She developed a translational programme "bench to bed" linking basic neurobiological research with clinical research; she thus promotes an interdisciplinary approach and close collaboration between experts in neuroscience and clinicians (psychiatrists, psychologists). Her programme is aimed at a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms leading to schizophrenia in order to be able to make an early diagnosis of the disease, and to develop new treatments as well as preventive measures.  

The results of Kim Do Cuénod's work are published on a regular basis, among others in some of the most important international scientific journals. She has also benefitted from the support of various institutions, such as the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Human Frontier Science Program (created by the G8 member States), and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD - USA). In 2006, she earned the Independant Investigator Award of the Mental Health Research Association (USA).

Kim Do Cuénod has been a lecturer at the University of Lausanne since 2000 and was appointed associate professor in translational research in psychiatry in 2011. She teaches both on the undergraduate level (Bachelor and Master programmes) and the post-graduate level (continuous training, specialization courses, etc.).

She has been a member of the executive committee of the Swiss Society of Biological Psychiatry since 2001. She is also member of several other scientific societies in Switzerland and abroad.

Kim Do Cuénod is a founding member of the Alamaya Foundation and has been member of the Board of Trustees since its creation in 2002.