Sean Morrison

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biography
• American Society of Cell Biology Profile (PDF)
• UM Morrison Lab

Sean Morrison is investigating the mechanisms that regulate stem cell function in the nervous and hematopoietic systems, particularly the mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal, aging, and organogenesis. Parallel studies of these mechanisms in stem cells from two different tissues will reveal the extent to which different types of stem cells employ similar or different mechanisms to regulate these critical functions.

In addition to stem cell research, Dr. Morrison has been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cells as a Director of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and as a member of the American Society for Cell Biology Public Policy Committee.

Morrison, 37, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he developed an early and intense passion for science. As an undergraduate student Morrison founded a company that developed biological fertilizers.

In 1991 he moved to Stanford University to pursue a Ph.D. and work with Irving Weissman, a pioneer in stem cell research. As a graduate student, Morrison isolated and characterized blood-forming stem cells. As a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of David Anderson at the California Institute of Technology, Morrison developed techniques for the isolation of nervous system stem cells. In 1999, Morrison was recruited to join the U-M Medical School faculty as a Biological Sciences Scholar.

The Morrison laboratory has published several important advances in stem cell biology in recent years. They showed for the first time that stem cells persist throughout adult life in the peripheral nervous system, a discovery that could lead to new treatments for nervous system injuries. They discovered mechanisms that regulate the maintenance of adult stem cells throughout life, an insight that could have implications for regenerative medicine and cancer. Most recently, they discovered new markers that enhance the purification of blood-forming stem cells, an advance that could lead to safer and more effective bone marrow transplants.

He was a Searle Scholar from 2000-2003. He has been named to Technology Review Magazine's list of 100 young innovators for 2002, received Wired Magazine's Rave Award for Science in 2003, and was given the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by George W. Bush in 2003.

Dr. Morrison is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. Morrison also heads U-M's Center for Stem Cell Biology at the LSI. The Center focuses on the biology of stem cells to advance scientific understanding and medicine through an interdisciplinary approach.