Sean Morrison

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biography
• American Society of Cell Biology Profile (PDF)
• U-M's Stem Cell Research Website

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 and stem cell aging, as well as the relationship between stem cell self-renewal and cancer cell proliferation. 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 Director of the UM Center for Stem Cell Biology, an officer of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and as a member of the American Society for Cell Biology Public Policy Committee. Michigan recently passed Proposal 2, making Michigan one of three states in the country to protect stem cell research in the state constitution.

Morrison, 40, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and completed his undergraduate work at Dalhousie University, where he interrupted his undergraduate studies to perform research after founding an agricultural biotechnology company that developed a biological fertilizer.

In 1991 he moved to Stanford University to pursue a Ph.D. As a graduate student in Irving Weissman’s lab 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 from uncultured tissues. In 1999, Morrison was recruited to join the U-M Medical School faculty as a Biological Sciences Scholar.

The Morrison laboratory has published a number of discoveries related to the mechanisms that regulate the maintenance of stem cells throughout life, and how these mechanisms change during aging. For example, the Morrison laboratory’s work suggests that aging tissues exhibit reduced regenerative capacity partly because stem cells induce tumor suppressor mechanisms as they age, reducing stem cell frequency and function.

Dr. Morrison was a Searle Scholar from 2000-2003, was 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. More recently Dr. Morrison was awarded the McCulloch and Till Award by the International Society for Hematology and Stem Cells (2007), and the Harland Winfield Mossman Award by the American Association of Anatomists (2008).

Dr. Morrison is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and various private foundations.