John A. Morris, PhD

My expertise is designing and conducting large-scale analyses of gene and protein expression across the entire brain of many species and developmental time points in order to establish functional relationships that may influence behavior and drug activity.

I helped pilot and test the developmental mouse and the adult human atlases (Hawrylycz et al., Nature 2012) at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, along with other large projects there considering the effect of strain, species, and sex on gene expression (Morris et al., PNAS 2010). By training the data annotation team in comparative molecular neuroanatomy, I supported efforts across many atlasing and data analysis projects. These cellular level analyses across the brains of humans, non-human primates, and mice, resulted in work that produced or supported several high-level publications.

Following the completion of atlas projects, I moved to the preclinical environment and directed GLP studies at SNBL USA, where specialization in non-human primate work has provided me means to develop new ways of measuring drug efficacy and safety. My experience regarding safety pharmacology alerted me to a surprising gap, whereby unexpected neurological side effects could be anticipated or mitigated by applying translational brain mapping experience to such preclinical concerns. I received a B.A. in economics at University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Michigan State.

It is my present goal to apply my familiarity of the CNS specific data sets I helped create (and newer datasets as they become available) to tractable problems of the research community, by highlighting and exploiting translational comparisons much earlier in the discovery process. I’ve trained many people, online, in workshops, and in person, on these data sets, and hope for their continued success in streamlining efforts to address brain disease.

June 2017