Biography of Constance L Cepko.

Abstract

Constance (Connie) Cepko, a developmental biologist and head of Harvard Medical School's Biological and Biomedical Sciences graduate program, has made extraordinary contributions toward understanding development of the vertebrate CNS. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Cepko has based most of her studies on the retina, a particularly accessible part of the CNS and an ideal model for other neural tissues. Through her pioneering use of genomics tools, such as serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and microarrays (1–3), Cepko and her colleagues have developed a comprehensive library of gene expression in mouse retinal development (ref. 3 and S. Blackshaw, S. Harpavat, J. Trimarchi, L. Cai, H. Huang, W. Kuo, K. Lee, R. Fraioli, S.-H. Cho, R. Yung, E. Asch, W. Wong, and C. Cepko, unpublished data). Her research team has traced the complicated migration routes of cells in several areas of the developing CNS of rodents and chicks by using lineage studies (4, 5). Cepko's laboratory also has identified several environmental factors that help determine the fate of undifferentiated retinal cells (6). Her studies have not only contributed basic knowledge to the study of neural development but also have paved the way toward understanding and eventually treating retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitus pigmentosa.⇓