Kathleen Morrison, Ph.D.

Click Here to Access the Webpage for Dr. Kathleen Morrison’sTranslational Neuroscience Lab

About

Dr. Morrison received her PhD in biological psychology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Tracy Bale at the University of Pennsylvania and then the University of Maryland School of Medicine. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Morrison was awarded an NIH Pathway to Independence grant, which also provides funding for the start of her independent lab. She joined the WVU faculty in August 2020 as an Assistant Professor. 

Dr. Morrison will be accepting graduate students for the fall of 2024.

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.

Courses

• Psychology 428/728 – Hormones and Behavior
• Psychology 650 – Behavioral Neuroscience Methods
  
• Psychology 722 – Biological Aspects of Behavior
  
• Psychology 724 – Advanced Neuroscience