Sean J. Morrison

Sean J. Morrison is the founding Director of the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He holds the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research. Dr. Morrison earned his B.Sc. in Biology and Chemistry from Dalhousie University (1991), a Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University (1996), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neurobiology at Caltech (1999).

• Education:
• B.Sc. - Dalhousie University (Biology & Chemistry, 1991)
• Ph.D. - Stanford University (Immunology, 1996)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship - Caltech (Neurobiology, 1999)

Research Interests: Dr. Morrison’s laboratory investigates the mechanisms that maintain adult tissues and how cancer cells exploit these processes to form tumors. His team compares stem cell and cancer cell replication mechanisms to develop novel regenerative medicine and anticancer therapies. Key areas include:

• Stem cell self-renewal and aging
• Metabolic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells
• Leptin Receptor+ stromal cell function
• Cancer progression and metastasis
• Proteostasis and niche biology
• Mechanotransduction in stem cell niches

Publications reveal trends in stem cell metabolism, tumor heterogeneity, and niche dynamics across Science, Nature, and Cell. His work on retrotransposons in stem cell activation (2024) and β-adrenergic receptor inhibition in hematopoietic regeneration (2024) highlights emerging therapeutic targets.

Awards & Recognitions: Dr. Morrison is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (2018), National Academy of Sciences (2020), and EMBO (2023). He received the Presidential Early Career Award (2003), MERIT Award from NIA (2009), and UT Southwestern’s Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award (2020).

Mentorship & Leadership: Dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from his lab have secured academic leadership roles or industry positions. He served as President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015–2016) and actively engages in public policy debates about stem cell research, including Michigan’s constitutional protections for regenerative medicine.