Professor Neil Morgan BSc, PhD

Professor Neil Morgan

Department of Cardiovascular Sciences
Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics

Contact details

Email
n.v.morgan@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@neilvmorgan
View my research portal
Address
Cardiovascular Sciences
College of Medicine and Health
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK
Department of Cardiovascular Sciences Research Theme: Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Neil Morgan is a Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics within Cardiovascular Sciences.

He has published over 130 research papers in high impact scientific journals in the field of human genetics and has an H-index of 56, with 14,000 citations. His current research primarily involves the identification and characterisation of novel genes for inherited diseases in the haematopoietic system and haemostasis.

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6433-5692

Qualifications

  • PhD in Molecular Genetics 2005
  • BSc (Hons) Applied Biochemistry 1994

Biography

Neil Morgan qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biochemistry from Liverpool John Moores University in 1994. His first post was as Research Assistant at Guy’s Hospital until 2000 followed by a brief spell as a Research Associate at Leicester University. He joined the Medical and Molecular Genetics group at the University of Birmingham where he went on to study for a PhD in Molecular Genetics. In 2011 he was appointed as a lecturer in Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Birmingham and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2016, to Reader in 2020 and subsequently to Professor in 2021.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Neil is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Gene identification of inherited bleeding disorders
  • Next generation sequencing technologies in human disease gene identification
  • Platelet and Megakaryocyte Biology of novel disease genes mutated in inherited thrombocytopenia
  • Phenotyping and functional testing of Bleeding Disorders of Unknown Cause (BDUC)

Current PhD students:  Zoe Markham-Lee, Natasha Pavey, Ravinder Bhardwaj

Current Postdoctoral research fellows: Dr Xenia Sawkulycz

Alumni PhD students: Ben Johnson, Jane Futterer, Atif Alsaedi, Abdullah Khan, Annabel Maclachlan, Emily Colley, Ibrahim Almazni, Rachel Stapley,

Alumni Postdoctoral research fellows: Dr Sarah Fletcher, Dr Abdullah Khan, Rachel Stapley

Research

A major aim of his research at the University of Birmingham has been to identify novel genes for inherited diseases to allow improved genetic diagnosis and gain important insights into the pathogenesis of the disorder and elucidate the function of the disease gene. His current research is focusing on the molecular genetics of patients with platelet-based bleeding disorders and low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia). He utilises the latest next generation sequencing technologies to identify novel gene defects providing clues to genes and proteins involved in normal platelet physiology which will ultimately lead to devising new treatment strategies to minimise the risk of bleeding in such patients.

His past research has primarily involved identification of the novel genes for inherited diseases of the haematopoietic system. He has been extremely successful in his pursuit and key findings include: 

  • SLFN14 mutations causing an inherited bleeding disorder with thrombocytopenia and platelet secretion defects
  • TRAC mutations causing a novel immunodeficiency disorder  
  • SLC29A3 mutations causing familial Faisalabad histiocytosis/Rosai-Dorfman disease
  • BLOC1S3 mutations causing a novel form of Hermansky Pudlak disorder (HPS8)
  • CHRNG, RAPSN and DOK7 mutations causing multiple pterygia syndrome/foetal akinesia deformation sequence
  • PLA2G6 mutations causing a spectrum of childhood onset neurodegenerative disorders associated with brain iron accumulation
My Research with Dr Neil Morgan

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Díaz-Ajenjo, L, Marín-Quílez, A, Lama-Villanueva, A, García-Jaén, P, Rey-Bua, B, Hernández-Rivas, JM, Morgan, NV, González-Porras, JR, Benito, R, Rivera, J & Bastida Bermejo, JM 2025, 'A novel homozygous splice-site variant in VPS33B identified as a cause of bleeding', Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2025.09.036

Huang, J, Marini, F, Solari, FA, Swieringa, F, de Laat, B, De Simone, I, Grassi, L, Gui, X, Li, K, Middleton, EA, Morgan, NV, Provenzale, I, Santos, C, Schols, S, Westbury, S, Sickmann, A, Rondina, MT, Ruf, W, Frontini, M & Heemskerk, JWM 2025, 'Human and mouse platelet transcriptomes and proteomes for phenotyping 3474 genes with hemostatic and platelet traits', Blood vessels, thrombosis & hemostasis, vol. 2, no. 3, 100068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bvth.2025.100068

Di Buduo, CA, Abbonante, V, Malara, A, Balduini, A, Waller, AK, Watson, SP, Martin, EM, Bridge, L, Gibbins, J, Hers, I, Masson, C, Eckly, A, Poulter, NS, Martínez-García, B, Aguila, S, Gresele, P, Momi, S, Amstrong, P, Rondina, M, Troitiño, S, García, Á, Bastida, JM, Quilez, AM, Fuentes, AS, Rivera, J, Torres-Ruiz, R, Ojeda-Walczuk, P, Morgan, NV, Morena, BDL, Ramaekers, K, Tran, M, De Wispelaere, K, Freson, K, Bergmeier, W, Greinacher, A, He, F, Oh, S, Di Paola, J, Semple, JW, Lozano, ML, Llamas, P & Ward, C 2025, 'Illustrated capsules from the Advanced Course in Platelet Research', Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 9, no. 2, 102715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2025.102715

Stapley, RJ, Sawkulycz, X, Da Mota Araujo, GHM, Englert, M, Garcia-Quintanilla, L, Smith, SRM, Ahmed, A, Haining, EJ, Kaur, N, Bacon, A, Pisarev, AV, Poulter, NS, Kavanagh, DPJ, Thomas, SG, Montague, SJ, Rayes, J, Nagy, Z & Morgan, NV 2025, 'Platelet-specific SLFN14 deletion causes macrothrombocytopenia and platelet dysfunction through dysregulated megakaryocyte and platelet gene expression', Journal of Clinical Investigation. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI189100

Luo, M, Jia, X, Wang, Z-W, Yang, J-Y, Wang, W, Chen, J, Ou, J-Y, Feng, J-X, Yu, B, Wang, S, Huang, L, Morgan, N, Deng, K, Chen, T, Zhang, Q & Gao, S 2025, 'Structural and functional characterization of human SLFN14', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 53, no. 10, gkaf484. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf484

Noureddine, M, Mikolajek, H, Morgan, N, Denning, C, Loughna, S, Gehmlich, K & Mohammed, F 2025, 'Structural and functional insights into α-actinin isoforms and their implications in cardiovascular disease', Journal of General Physiology, vol. 157, no. 2, e202413684. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202413684

Smith, SRM, Morgan, N & Brill, A 2025, 'Venous Thrombosis Unchained: Pandora's Box of Non-Inflammatory Mechanisms', Blood Advances.

Montague, SJ, Price, J, Pennycott, K, Pavey, NJ, Martin, EM, Thirlwell, I, Kemble, S, Monteiro, C, Redmond-Motteram, L, Lawson, N, Reynolds, K, Fratter, C, Bignell, P, Groenheide, A, Huskens, D, Laat, BD, Pike, JA, Poulter, NS, Thomas, SG, Lowe, GC, Lancashire, J, Harrison, P & Morgan, NV 2024, 'Comprehensive functional characterization of a novel ANO6 variant in a new patient with Scott syndrome', Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 2281-2293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2024.02.021

Reyat, J, Sommerfeld, L, O'Reilly, M, Roth Cardoso, V, Thiemann, E, Khan, A, O'Shea, C, Harder, S, Müller, C, Barlow, J, Stapley, R, Chua, WWL, Kabir, N, Grech, O, Hummel, O, Hübner, N, Kaab, S, Mont, L, Hatem, SN, Winters, J, Zeemering, S, Morgan, N, Rayes, J, Gehmlich, K, Stoll, M, Brand, T, Schweizer , M, Piasecki, A, Schotten, U, Gkoutos, G, Lorenz, K, Cuello, F, Kirchhof, P & Fabritz, L 2024, 'PITX2 deficiency leads to atrial mitochondrial dysfunction', Cardiovascular Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvae169

Barrachina, MN, Pernes, G, Becker, IC, Allaeys, I, Hirsch, TI, Groeneveld, DJ, Khan, AO, Freire, D, Guo, K, Carminita, E, Morgan, PK, Collins, TJC, Mellett, NA, Wei, Z, Almazni, I, Italiano, JE, Luyendyk, J, Meikle, PJ, Puder, M, Morgan, NV, Boilard, E, Murphy, AJ & Machlus, KR 2023, 'Efficient megakaryopoiesis and platelet production require phospholipid remodeling and PUFA uptake through CD36', Nature Cardiovascular Research, vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 746-763. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-023-00305-y

Ross, JE, Mohan, S, Zhang, J, Sullivan, MJ, Bury, L, Lee, K, Futchi, I, Frantz, A, McDougal, D, Perez Botero, J, Cattaneo, M, Cooper, N, Downes, K, Gresele, P, Keenan, C, Lee, A, Megy, K, Morange, P, Morgan, N, Schulze, H, Zimowski, K, Freson, K & P.Lambert, M 2023, 'Evaluating the clinical validity of genes related to hemostasis and thrombosis using the ClinGen gene curation framework', Thrombosis and Haemostasis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.11.011

Homan, CC, Drazer, MW, Yu, K, Lawrence, DM, Feng, J, Arriola-Martinez, L, Pozsgai, MJ, McNeely, KE, Ha, T, Venugopal, P, Arts, P, King-Smith, SL, Cheah, J, Armstrong, M, Wang, P, Bödör, C, Cantor, AB, Cazzola, M, Degelman, E, DiNardo, CD, Duployez, N, Favier, R, Fröhling, S, Rio-Machin, A, Klco, JM, Krämer, A, Kurokawa, M, Lee, J, Malcovati, L, Morgan, NV, Natsoulis, G, Owen, C, Patel, KP, Preudhomme, C, Raslova, H, Rienhoff, H, Ripperger, T, Schulte, R, Tawana, K, Velloso, E, Yan, B, Kim, E, Sood, R, Hsu, AP, Holland, SM, Phillips, K, Poplawski, NK, Babic, M, Wei, AH, Forsyth, C, Mar Fan, H, Lewis, ID, Cooney, J, Susman, R, Fox, LC, Blombery, P, Singhal, D, Hiwase, D, Phipson, B, Schreiber, AW, Hahn, CN, Scott, HS, Liu, P, Godley, LA & Brown, AL 2023, 'Somatic mutational landscape of hereditary hematopoietic malignancies caused by germline variants in RUNX1, GATA2, and DDX41', Blood Advances, vol. 7, no. 20, pp. 6092-6107. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010045

Editorial

Morgan, NV 2023, 'Editorial: Case reports in cardiovascular genetics and systems medicine: 2022', Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, vol. 10, 1282147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2023.1282147

Letter

Hassan, E, Fratter, C, Lester, W, Percy, C, Saad, W, Alkhedir, A, Motwani, J, Bagnell, P, Nicolson, PLR, Morgan, NV, Potluri, S & Lowe, G 2025, 'The diagnostic utility of genetic testing in inherited thrombocytopenia: regional multicenter tertiary experience', Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 9, no. 3, 102869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpth.2025.102869

Review article

Aikawa, M, Sonawane, AR, Chelvanambi, S, Asano, T, Halu, A, Matamalas, JT, Singh, SA, Uchida, S, Aikawa, E, Arenas, A, Balligand, C, MacRae, CA, Oury, C, Morgan, N, Tevaearai Stahel, H & Loscalzo, J 2025, 'Precision cardiovascular medicine: shifting the innovation paradigm', Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, vol. 3, 1474469. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2025.1474469

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