Kathleen Morrison, PhD

Research Interests

Using stress as one of the common experiences that brings about neuropsychiatric disease, Dr. Morrison’s lab works to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of experience-dependent resilience and vulnerability to stress, and how sex, developmental stage, and type of experience shape an individual’s trajectory. She is particularly interested in women’s mental health, as there has been little work to understand why women are more likely than men to suffer from mood disorders. Working with clinical collaborators, Dr. Morrison developed a translationally-relevant mouse model that allows the lab to address how neuropsychiatric disease risk is compounded throughout the life of a woman, a process that is multifaceted and not well understood. Dr. Morrison’s lab utilizes a variety of approaches, including advanced sequencing techniques, bioinformatics, molecular methods, and behavioral assays.