Professor Neil Morgan BSc, PhD

Professor Neil Morgan

Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences
Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics

Contact details

Email
n.v.morgan@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@neilvmorgan
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

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

He has published over 100 research papers in high impact scientific journals in the field of human genetics and has an H-index of 54, with 12,000 citations. His current research primarily involves the identification and characterisation of novel genes for inherited diseases in the haematopoietic system and haemostasis.

ORCHID 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 the Institute of 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

Current PhD students: Ibrahim Almazni, Rachel Stapley, Jack Yule, Zoe Markham-Lee

Current Postdoctoral research fellows: Rachel Stapley

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

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

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

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Almazni, IAF, Chudakou, P, Dawson-Meadows, A, Downes, K, Freson, K, Mason, J, Page, P, Reay, K, Myers, B & Morgan, N 2021, 'A novel RUNX1 exon 3 - 7 deletion causing a familial platelet disorder', Platelets. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2021.1887470

Morgan, N, Yngvadottir, B, O'Driscoll, M, Clark, GR, Walsh, D, Martin, E, Tee, L, Reid, E, Titheradge, H & Maher, E 2021, 'Evidence that autosomal recessive spastic cerebral palsy-1 (CPSQ1) is caused by a missense variant in HPDL', Brain Communications, vol. 3, no. 1, fcab002. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab002

Megy, K, Downes, K, Morel‐kopp, M, Bastida, JM, Brooks, S, Bury, L, Leinoe, E, Gomez, K, Morgan, NV, Othman, M, Ouwehand, WH, Perez Botero, J, Rivera, J, Schulze, H, Trégouët, D & Freson, K 2021, 'GoldVariants, a resource for sharing rare genetic variants detected in bleeding, thrombotic and platelet disorders: communication from the ISTH SSC Subcommittee on Genomics in Thrombosis and Hemostasis', Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. https://doi.org/10.1111/jth.15459

Stapley, R, Smith, C, Haining, E, Bacon, A, Lax, S, Pisareva, V, Pisarev, A, Watson, S, Khan, A & Morgan, N 2021, 'Heterozygous mutation SLFN14 K208N in mice mediates species-specific differences in platelet and erythroid lineage commitment: SLFN14 mediates lineage commitment in mice', Blood Advances, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 377–390. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020002404

UK GAPP Study Group 2021, 'Novel gene variants in patients with platelet-based bleeding using combined exome sequencing and RNAseq murine expression data', Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 262-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/jth.15119

Almazni, IAF, Stapley, R, Khan, A & Morgan, N 2020, 'A comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of 126 patients with an inherited platelet disorder to identify both sequence and copy number genetic variants', Human Mutation, vol. 41, no. 11, pp. 1848-1865. https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.24114

Pike, J, Simms, V, Smith, C, Morgan, N, Khan, A, Poulter, N, Styles, I & Thomas, S 2020, 'An adaptable analysis workflow for characterization of platelet spreading and morphology', Platelets. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2020.1748588 Abstract

Nagy, M, Perrella, G, Dalby, A, Becerra, F, Garcia Quintanilla, L, Pike, J, Morgan, N, Gardiner, EE, Heemskerk, JWM, Azocar, L, Miquel, JF, Mezzano, D & Watson, S 2020, 'Flow studies on human GPVI-deficient blood under coagulating and noncoagulating conditions', Blood Advances, vol. 4, no. 13, pp. 2953–2961. https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2020001761

Stremenova Spegarova, J, Lawless, D, Mohamad, SMB, Engelhardt, KR, Doody, GM, Shrimpton, J, Rensing-Ehl, A, Ehl, S, Rieux-Laucat, F, Cargo, C, Griffin, H, Mikulasova, A, Acres, M, Morgan, N, Poulter, J, Sheridan, E, Chetcuti, P, O'Riordan, S, Anwar, R, Carter, C, Przyborski, S, Windebank, K, Cant, A, Lako, M, Bacon, C, Savic, S & Hambleton, S 2020, 'Germline TET2 loss of function causes childhood immunodeficiency and lymphoma', Blood, vol. 136, no. 9, pp. 1055-1066. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2020005844

Khan, A, Maclachlan, A, Lowe, G, Nicolson, P, Al Ghaithi, RHR, Thomas, S, Watson, S, Pike, J & Morgan, N 2020, 'High-throughput platelet spreading analysis: a tool for the diagnosis of platelet-based bleeding disorders', Haematologica, vol. 105, pp. e124-e128. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2019.225912

Yule, J, Morgan, N & Poulter, N 2020, 'New insights into Glycoprotein Ibα desialylation-mediated platelet clearance', Platelets, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 621-623. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537104.2020.1764922

Khan, A, Slater, A, Maclachlan, A, Nicolson, P, Pike, J, Reyat, J, Yule, J, Stapley, R, Rayes, J, Thomas, S & Morgan, N 2020, 'Post-translational polymodification of β1-tubulin regulates motor protein localisation in platelet production and function', Haematologica, vol. 2020, no. 00, pp. 1-43. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2020.270793

Khan, A, White, CW, Pike, J, Yule, J, Slater, A, Hill, SJ, Poulter, N, Thomas, S & Morgan, N 2019, 'Optimised insert design for improved single-molecule imaging and quantification through CRISPR-Cas9 mediated knock-in', Scientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, 14219. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50733-9

Letter

RUNX1 international data-sharing consortium 2021, 'The RUNX1 Database (RUNX1db): establishment of an expert curated RUNX1 registry and genomics database as a public resource for familial platelet disorder with myeloid malignancy', Haematologica. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2021.278762

Review article

Almazni, IAF, Stapley, R & Morgan, N 2019, 'Inherited thrombocytopenia: update on genes and genetic variants which may be associated with bleeding', Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, vol. 6, 80. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2019.00080

View all publications in research portal

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