Mark Emerson, PhD

Mark Emerson is an Assistant Professor of Biology at The City College of New York, City University of New York. He has had a long-standing interest in understanding how the brain develops and functions, beginning as an undergraduate student at Oberlin College followed by doctoral studies in Neuroscience at Harvard University. He began his studies in the eye as a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Constance Cepko at Harvard Medical School where he developed methods to study the formation of cone photoreceptors during development. He currently leads a team that uses imaging techniques, quantitative flow cytometry, in vivo gene editing, and next-generation sequencing techniques to identify the cellular and molecular steps involved in cone photoreceptor generation. His long-term goal is to leverage this knowledge to develop new therapies for human conditions in which cone cells are compromised or lost.