Since 1986, Cynthia Kenyon has taught at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is now Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She joined UCSF after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where she studied the developmental genetics of the nematode C. elegans.

Kenyon received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 after completing her B.S. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Georgia in 1976. She studies explores how genetic changes can allow the microscopic worm C. elegans to exceed its normal life span. The recipient of numerous professional honors, Kenyon is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications.