About
Constance Cepko is the Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. She is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, focusing on retinal development and degeneration. Her lab employs cutting-edge tools like VSV-based transsynaptic tracers and GFP-dependent constructs (T-DDOG, Cre-DOG) to study neural circuits and develop gene therapies for retinal diseases.
- Key Research Areas: Retinal circuitry, photoreceptor survival mechanisms, and viral vector engineering for neuroscience applications.
- Scientific Contributions: Development of VSV for anterograde/retrograde tracing, modular GFP scaffolding systems for gene regulation, and electroporation techniques for rapid enhancer analysis.
Her recent publications address therapies targeting oxidative stress (NRF2, Txnip), metabolic interventions in retinitis pigmentosa, and advanced imaging technologies (SABER-FISH, Thermal-plex). Collaborative work includes clonal analysis of retinal progenitors and synaptic mapping in mouse models.
- Notable Awards: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Laboratory team members include graduate students (e.g., Jonathan Tang, Eugene Drokhlyansky) and postdoctoral fellows (e.g., Xiang Ma, Nathan Mundell). Her work spans developmental biology, gene therapy, and neurotechnology, aiming to preserve vision in degenerative diseases.
