John H. Morrison, Ph.D.

Administrative Accomplishments

I am currently the Director of the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), Professor of Neurology, and Distinguished Professor at UC Davis. As Director of CNPRC, I am responsible for the overall scientific program, the maintenance and welfare of the primate colony, administration and finances of the CNPRC, which currently has over 325 employees, 25 Core Faculty members and 100 Affiliate faculty members. The CNPRC is a very complex enterprise with direct interactions with both NIH and the Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Davis as well as multiple deans and department chairs throughout the University. I have also served on multiple institutional committees at UC Davis, including the Neuroscience Strategic Steering Committee and the Steering Committee for the Imaging Research Center. Prior to moving to UC Davis to direct the CNPRC, I was at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) for 26 years, where I held several key leadership positions. I was Dean of Basic Sciences and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at ISMMS from 2006 until I left in October 2015. With respect to Basic Sciences, I was responsible for all aspects of infrastructure related to basic science (e.g., lab space utilization and design, animal facilities, biosafety) and worked closely with the basic science chairs and the Dean of ISMMS on departmental budgets, strategic planning, development of new initiatives, recruitment of basic science chairs, institute directors, and senior faculty, and all other aspects of growth and maintenance of the basic science enterprise. In this role, I worked closely with institutional leaders and chairs on all financial issues and budgets relevant to the basic science enterprise. With respect to the Graduate School, I was responsible for all of the MS, PhD and MD/PhD programs as well as the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs including all financial matters relevant to these programs. In my role as Dean, I chaired many committees, such as Search Committees for Chairs of Pharmacology, Oncological Sciences, and Psychiatry, as well as chairing the Dean-Research Chairs Committee, The Basic Science Advisory Council, Committee on Research Space Risk Assessment, and numerous committees within the Graduate School. Prior to becoming Dean at ISMMS, I was Chair of Neuroscience (2004-2006), Director of Neurobiology (2002-2004), and Co-Director of Neurobiology (1989-2002). Along with my departmental responsibilities as Director/Chair, I sat on and chaired numerous institutional committees such as Executive Faculty, The Planning Committee for the Brain Institute (Co-Chair), The President’s Executive Chair Committee, The Research Planning Committee (Co-Chair), the Neurosciences Workgroup for the Strategic Planning Initiative (Chair), Committee on Academic Priorities (Chair), and the Search Committees for both the Dean of ISMMS and the President and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center. Thus, my administrative experience at Mount Sinai and UC Davis is extensive, particularly with respect to building consensus across complex structures with stakeholders at all levels of the academic community. Such experience is particularly well suited for a leadership position at SfN, an organization that embraces leadership and decision-making by consensus, and is strongly reliant on its membership at large, council members, and committees to establish and achieve its desired goals. Finally, I recently completed my term as Secretary of SfN.

Degree, Institute, Year Earned

Research Areas 

My general area of research is the neurobiology of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, particularly as they relate to cellular and synaptic organization of cerebral cortex. We are particularly interested in developing a comprehensive profile of synaptic health in regions vulnerable to aging (e.g., prefrontal cortex, hippocampus), and identifying decrements in synaptic health that lead to cognitive decline. We have extended this framework to the interactions between endocrine factors such as estrogen and synaptic health, as well as the effects of stress on cortical neurons. Our capacity to link neuronal and synaptic alterations to cognitive performance has been greatly enhanced by our use of powerful quantitative microscopic techniques that reveal both structural and molecular attributes of the synapse that are either vulnerable or resilient in the context of aging. In recent years at the CNPRC, we have successfully developed rhesus monkey models of Alzheimer’s disease and developed a new research program on the cellular and synaptic pathology of neuro-invasive viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, Zika, and HIV in rhesus monkey models.

Current Position(s) at Your Current Institution

UC Davis Distinguished Professor and Director of the California National Primate Research Center. Professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine and Professor in the Center for Neuroscience (Affiliated Faculty), University of California Davis, Davis, CA.

Service Positions

Editorial Boards:

Other Service Positions:

Science Biography

Throughout my career, I have retained a focus on the cellular and synaptic organization of cerebral cortex. During my graduate work and postdoctoral fellowship, I focused primarily on the analysis of cortical monoamine systems and intrinsic peptide-containing neurons (e.g., somatostatin, VIP) that led to conceptual frameworks that linked these neurotransmitter-based analyses to established concepts of cortical organization. In the early 90s, we began to focus on receptor localization, particularly the glutamatergic receptors, for which we developed a panel of monoclonal antibodies with subunit-specificity that others and we have used to analyze the molecular profile of glutamatergic synapses.

My focus on cerebral cortex led directly to my interest in the cellular pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly with respect to selective circuit disruption that results in dementia. While our lab and others made significant progress in understanding the neurobiological substrate of dementia and the nature of selective vulnerability in AD, it became increasingly clear to me that we needed to expand our understanding of the aging brain if we were to understand the transition to AD.  Thus, we began to focus on the age-related cellular, molecular, and synaptic alterations that lead to cognitive decline in the absence of neuron death, yet might be a precursor to AD in humans. We focused on defining synaptic health in targeted age-sensitive regions, how specific aspects of synaptic health relate to cognitive performance, and the specific deviations from synaptic health that occur in aging and drive cognitive decline. We have shown in nonhuman primates that such alterations can manifest at the molecular, structural, or bioenergetic level with remarkable regional specificity. In addition, such alterations are not inevitable, as evidenced by our work and the work of others on the interactive effects of aging and estradiol on cognitive performance and synaptic health. Importantly, estradiol treatment can help preserve synaptic health and protect against age-related cognitive decline. We and many of our colleagues have concluded that intervention even in early AD is too late- we must develop interventions that preserve synaptic health and prevent the onset of the degenerative cascade. Over the last five years, we have developed rhesus monkey models of AD to test very early interventions that target both the synaptic phase of AD and the degenerative phase that leads to neuron death.  In addition, we recently developed a new research program targeting neuro-invasive viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, Zika, and HIV in the rhesus monkey model to address the compelling public health issues inherent to viral infection of brain circuits and neuroinflammation. It has become quite clear over the last several years that the neuroscience community has a crucial role to play in understanding and preventing the potentially devastating effects of viral infections of the brain. Finally, I had the honor of leading the neuroscience team that worked with ARTECHOUSE to create the immersive experience “Life of a Neuron”, which was launched in Washington, DC in November, 2021 and moved to New York City in 2022. The two exhibits attracted over 150,000 viewers.

The full CV for this candidate can be found within the ballot.