Dr. Sean Morrison Brings Promise and Enthusiasm to U-M Stem Cell Research
March 18, 2006, ANN ARBOR, Michigan –
“A scientist is like a storyteller,” says Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Stem Cell Biology. “It’s exciting to discover a good story and be able to tell people about it.”
These days, there aren’t too many scientists who have a better or more exciting story to tell than Morrison, a Canadian-born researcher who is in the forefront of an unprecedented effort to unlock the enormous potential of stem cells in the treatment of mankind’s most devastating diseases.
At his new laboratory in the U-M’s Life Sciences Institute, Morrison and a dedicated staff of young researchers are attempting to advance the use of stem cell therapies to surmount the obstacles that have traditionally surrounded the development of new treatments for certain cancers, degenerative diseases and birth defects.
Morrison’s lab specializes in two kinds of adult stem cells: hematopoietic stem cells – the rare cells in bone marrow that generate all the other cells in the blood and immune systems – and the neural crest stem cells that form the peripheral nervous system. He is particularly interested in the mechanisms that regulate such stem cell functions as self-renewal and aging.
“For example,” Morrison says, “we study the mechanisms that allow stem cells to divide and make more stem cells, and the kinds of environmental mechanisms that regulate stem cell function. As we do that, we learn things that would help us to better use stem cells in cell therapies or better understand diseases where something goes wrong.”
The importance of the lab's research transcends the theoretical for one of Morrison's highly motivated researchers, Eve Kruger -- a recent graduate of the M.D./Ph.D. program who is now doing post-doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis more than 20 years ago.
“Stem cells offer promise,” she says. “It’s really hard not to be excited about possible stem cell therapies when you see the number of diseases that could potentially be affected that don’t have possible treatments right now.”
While Morrison’s lab is achieving remarkable results with the use of adult stem cells, he and other scientists believe even greater strides could be made if they were permitted to use embryonic stem cells. A major source of those cells could be derived from leftover embryos used in fertility treatments. Although such embryos are routinely discarded and destroyed, the state of Michigan has one of the most restrictive laws in the nation forbidding their use for medical research.
Morrison grew up in Nova Scotia and earned his undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He was awarded a Ph.D. in immunology from Stanford University. As a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, Morrison was the first to purify neural stem cells directly from uncultured tissue. Based on this advance, Morrison then founded his own laboratory at the University of Michigan where he attracted international acclaim by overturning the scientific belief that stem cells do not exist in the peripheral nervous system of adults.
Morrison has been at the University of Michigan Medical School since 1999, and was drawn here by the U-M’s international stature and its culture of co-operation and collaboration.
“We don’t have people working in silos here,” he explains. “We don’t have people creating their own empires. There really is an ethic at the University of Michigan. Excellent scientists who are interested in working with other people in a way that doesn’t involve a lot of ego are drawn to this place.
“As a result, we are able to accomplish more as a group than we would be able to do as individuals.”
Morrison is the author of numerous highly regarded scientific publications, and was named as an Investigator of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000. In 2002, Technology Review selected him as one of the nation’s top 100 innovators, and he has won Wired magazine’s Rave Award for science. In 2003 Morrison was awarded an Early Career Award by the White House, the nations highest award for scientists and engineers at the outset of their career.
Morrison said he is encouraged by the work his laboratory is doing, and is driven by the immense promise the research may be on the verge of fulfilling.
“When you just can’t go to sleep at night because you’re thinking about a problem…sometimes you answer a question and the answer is just so beautiful that you can’t believe it -- and you are the first person who has ever seen that answer before – that’s an amazing thing.
“Most days,” Morrison adds with a laugh, “I wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning and I say to my wife, ‘can we go to work yet?’ I can’t tell you exactly what she says, but basically it’s ‘No!’”
-- John Barton
For More Information
For information on how to support Dr. Morrison’s vital work, or to receive an 8-minute DVD detailing his exciting research, contact the University of Michigan Health System’s office of development and alumni relations at 734-998-7705, or call the LSI development office at 734-763-0382.
