Carol Marcus Sekura

Carol Joyce Sekura passed away on October 20, 2025 in Key Largo, FL. Carol was the daughter of Frank and Florence Sacks who lived in Queens, New York at the time of her birth. After spending much of her professional life in Montgomery County Maryland, she moved to Key Largo, Florida where she resided for more than 25 years.

Carol lived an active life and enjoyed her family, travel, boating, the arts and her career in science. As a child she was the inquisitive one wanting to play with the chemistry set, wanting to figure out how the model trains worked, and always looking for adventure. This curiosity nurtured her love of science.

After Carol graduated from Bayside High School in Queens she attended Cornell University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry. She then attended Duke University where she received a Doctoral degree in Biochemistry. Her dissertation was titled “The Catalytic and Allosteric Properties of Bovine Hepatic Fructose-1,6-Diphosphatase.” This family of enzymes is present in almost all life forms and is crucial in the production of glucose, a sugar basic to life.

After graduate school Carol taught Biochemistry for several years at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Her students included future doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and nurses. Seeking to expand her education Carol took a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. After spending several years pursuing her interest in enzymology, she shifted her focus to virology.

Her broad based experience in the health sciences led to her taking a position in the Food and Drug Administration’s then Bureau of Biologics where she worked as a regulator and a research scientist. Her duties, in addition to research, included the review and approval of biological products and formulation of agency policy for their regulation. She played a pivotal role in establishing the guidelines for producing biopharmaceuticals by cell culture. She was recognized as an expert in the field of cell substrates used for biopharmaceutical manufacture. The regulations she helped write still guide the production of the recombinant products and monoclonal antibodies now widely prescribed.

During her academic and regulatory career she published numerous highly cited articles, most often published with her name as Carol Marcus Sekura. After leaving the Food and Drug Administration Carol remained active as a consultant serving the emerging biopharmaceutical industry.

Carol and her husband Ronald Sekura lived a charmed existence. Beyond their careers they enjoyed hiking and canoeing, boating on the Chesapeake Bay visiting different ports or just anchoring out, and venturing on their boat to Florida and the Bahamas. Their travels took them to all seven continents, often with the opportunity to meet with friends and fellow scientists in their home lands.

Carol is survived by her husband Ronald Sekura, her daughter Robin Marcus Larabee and son-in-law Todd Larabee, her two grandchildren Sophia and Niccolo Larabee, her sister and brother-in-law Ellen and Allen Cohen, her niece Suzanne Curtis and husband Justin and their children Finley and Mattox, her niece Melissa Orban and husband David and their children Ryleigh and Courtlyn, her brother-in law John Sekura, and many loving cousins and friends.

Contributions in Carol’s memory may be made to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, or to help preserve Florida’s coral reefs, the Coral Restoration Foundation.

A Celebration of Life, in honor of Carol, will be held on the patio of the Ocean Reef Chapel on November 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM.