Constance Cepko

Constance Louise Cepko is a developmental biologist and geneticist in Harvard Medical School. She is best known for her contributions in understanding the developmental biology of vertebrate central nervous systems.

Education

She was born in Laurel, Maryland. She received her B.S. in biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. She completed her Ph.D. at MIT in 1982 advised by Phil Sharp.

Career and research

As a postdoctoral research fellow with Richard C. Mulligan she studied retroviral vectors that she used to study the development of the retina. She is the former head of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences graduate program at Harvard Medical School.

Awards and honors

Cepko was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. In 2011, she received the Bressler Prize in Vision Science awarded to under-recognized scientists and clinicians in their field for her work in retina development. In 2019, she was selected by Brandeis University to give the John E. Lisman Memorial Lecture in [Vision Science|Lisman Memorial Lecture in Vision Science].