Rate My Professor Ian Morison

Professor Ian Morison is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago's Dunedin School of Medicine, within the Faculty of Medicine. He holds an MB ChB, a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Otago (1992–1995), and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in Haematology (FRCPA(Haem)). As a research haematologist, Morison combines diagnostic haematology practice as a consultant haematologist at Southern Community Laboratories with basic research. His career at the University of Otago includes prior service as Head of the Department of Pathology. In 2024, he received the Department of Pathology Teaching Award.

The Morison Laboratory, under his principal investigation, specializes in epigenetics and cancer, with a focus on haematology, development, and the placenta. Key research examines DNA methylation as a biomarker for blood cancers, including childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, myelodysplasia, and myeloma, to elucidate their origins, biology, diagnosis, and treatment. The lab also studies DNA methylation differences in the normal and diseased placenta, such as in pre-eclampsia, and mechanisms of methylation changes from drug treatments or environmental exposures. Genetic analyses of blood disorders, like familial thrombocytopenia, have revealed new insights into platelet formation involving cytochrome c. Expertise encompasses Wilms tumour, cancer genetics, blood disorders, thrombocytopenia, blood genetics, diagnostic haematology, imprinting, and epigenetics. Morison has supervised numerous PhD and honours students. His influential publications include 'A census of mammalian imprinting' (Trends in Genetics, 2005), 'Physiological functions of imprinted genes' (Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2002), 'A catalogue of imprinted genes and parent-of-origin effects in humans and animals' (Human Molecular Genetics, 1998), 'A mutation of human cytochrome c enhances the intrinsic apoptotic pathway but causes only thrombocytopenia' (Nature Genetics, 2008), and 'Epigenetic changes at the insulin-like growth factor II/H19 locus in developing kidney is an early event in Wilms tumorigenesis' (PNAS, 1997). His research has garnered over 5,000 citations.