Sean Morrison, Ph.D.

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Sean J. Morrison is the Director of the Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern and is the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics as well as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Morrison laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the function of stem cells and cancer cells in the nervous and hematopoietic systems. The laboratory is particularly interested in the mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal and stem cell aging, as well as the role these mechanisms play in cancer. Dr. Morrison obtained his B.Sc. in biology and chemistry from Dalhousie University (1991), then completed a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University (1996), and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech (1999). From 1999 to 2011, Dr. Morrison was a Professor at the University of Michigan where he Directed their Center for Stem Cell Biology. Dr. Morrison was a Searle Scholar (2000-2003), was named to Technology Review Magazine's list of 100 young innovators (2002), received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2003), the International Society for Hematology and Stem Cell's McCulloch and Till Award (2007) the American Association of Anatomists Harland Mossman Award (2008), and a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Morrison has also been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cells. He has twice testified before Congress and was a leader in the successful "Proposal 2" campaign to protect stem cell research in Michigan's state constitution.

Undergraduate	Dalhousie University - Canada (1991), Biology
Graduate School	Stanford University (1996)

• Cancer stem cell biology
• Melanoma cell proliferation and metastasis
• Stem cell aging
• Stem cell self-renewal

Featured Publications

Endothelial and perivascular cells maintain haematopoietic stem cells.

Ding L, Saunders TL, Enikolopov G, Morrison SJ Nature 2012 Jan 481 7382 457-62

Lkb1 regulates cell cycle and energy metabolism in haematopoietic stem cells.

Nakada D, Saunders TL, Morrison SJ Nature 2010 Dec 468 7324

Heterogeneity in cancer: cancer stem cells versus clonal evolution.

Shackleton M, Quintana E, Fearon ER, Morrison SJ Cell 2009 Sep 138 5

Mechanisms of stem cell self-renewal.

He S, Nakada D, Morrison SJ Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2009 25

Efficient tumour formation by single human melanoma cells.

Quintana E, Shackleton M, Sabel MS, Fullen DR, Johnson TM, Morrison SJ Nature 2008 Dec 456 7222

Stem cells and niches: mechanisms that promote stem cell maintenance throughout life.

Morrison SJ, Spradling AC Cell 2008 Feb 132 4

Sox17 dependence distinguishes the transcriptional regulation of fetal from adult hematopoietic stem cells.

Kim I, Saunders TL, Morrison SJ Cell 2007 Aug 130 3

Increasing p16INK4a expression decreases forebrain progenitors and neurogenesis during ageing.

Molofsky AV, Slutsky SG, Joseph NM, He S, Pardal R, Krishnamurthy J, Sharpless NE, Morrison SJ Nature 2006 Sep 443 7110

Asymmetric and symmetric stem-cell divisions in development and cancer.

Morrison SJ, Kimble J Nature 2006 Jun 441 7097

Pten dependence distinguishes haematopoietic stem cells from leukaemia-initiating cells.

Yilmaz OH, Valdez R, Theisen BK, Guo W, Ferguson DO, Wu H, Morrison SJ Nature 2006 May 441 7092

• MERIT Award, National Institute on Aging
  (2009)
• Harland Winfield Mossman Award, American Association of Anatomists
  (2008)
• McCulloch and Till Award, International Society for Hematology & Stem Cells
  (2007)
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, White House Office of Science and Technology
  (2003)
• Searle Scholar
  (2000)