2009 Election Candidates

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Sean J. Morrison, Ph.D.
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Henry Sewall Professor in Medicine
Director, University of Michigan Center for Stem Cell Biology

The Morrison laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function 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). Since 1999, Dr. Morrison has been at the University of Michigan, where his laboratory studies the mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal and stem cell aging, as well as the link between stem cell function and cancer. Dr. Morrison was a Searle Scholar (2000-2003), was named to Technology Review Magazine’s list of 100 young innovators (2002), received the Wired Magazine Rave Award for Science (2003), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2003), the International Society for Hematology and Stem Cell’s McCulloch and Till Award (2007), and the American Association of Anatomists Harland Mossman Award (2008). The Morrison laboratory’s work on stem cells is primarily funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Morrison has also been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cells as an officer and a director of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Most recently, Dr. Morrison was a leader in the successful “Proposal 2” campaign to loosen restrictions on stem cell research in the state of Michigan.

Updated: April 16, 2009