Mari Sepp is a postdoctoral scientist at the Center for Molecular Biology of the University of Heidelberg. She grew up in Estonia, graduated from the University of Tartu and received her doctoral degree from Tallinn University of Technology.

Sepp’s primary research interest is elucidating the molecular mechanisms that connect genotypes to phenotypes, with the ultimate goal of understanding their implications in disease. During her doctoral research, she identified TCF4 as an activity-regulated transcription factor in neurons and demonstrated how autism-associated mutations in TCF4 impair its function. In her postdoctoral research, she compared cerebellum development across different mammalian species, revealing both conserved and human-unique aspects of its cellular dynamics and gene expression programs. Guided by this work, Sepp seeks to employ mouse and human model systems to investigate how mutations in autism spectrum disorder-associated genes affect cerebellum development.

Sepp has been awarded the Otto Schmeil Prize from the Academy of Sciences of the State of Baden-Württemberg and was selected as a SFARI Bridge to Independence fellow in 2024.