The niche for hematopoiesis and osteogenesis in the bone marrow

April 07, 2016
11:00
Main Auditorium

Host: HR Rodewald

Short-Bio: Sean Morrison

Sean J. Morrison is the Director of the Children’s Research Institute and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Morrison laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function and cancer biology in the nervous and hematopoietic systems.  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 moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he is the founding Director of the new Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Morrison’s laboratory studies the mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal and stem cell aging, as well as the role these mechanisms play in cancer. 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.