David Morgan

MSU Foundation Professors College of Human Medicine

• MSU Foundation Professor

• Translational Science and Molecular Medicine

Bio

David Morgan, professor in the Department of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine of the College of Human Medicine, has spent his career studying the causes of Alzheimer’s dementia, a devastating illness that afflicts 5 million Americans and costs more than $250 billion a year. His research has already led to several clinical trials, first with a vaccine and now with antibody injections, to activate the body’s immune response and stop the buildup of a protein called beta amyloid in the brain. In collaboration with his colleague and wife, Marcia Gordon, Morgan is also studying other possible therapies to prevent the buildup of a second protein, called tau, which conspires with beta amyloid to kill neurons in the brain, and to treat inflammation in the brain that accompanies Alzheimer’s. 

Morgan received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and began his academic career at the University of Southern California in 1986. Before joining MSU in 2017, he accrued more than two decades of distinguished service on the faculty of University of South Florida, becoming Director of Neuroscience Research and Chief Executive Officer of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute.

Morgan's work has been supported by multiple grants from the NIH and private foundations, and he regularly sits on review panels for the NIH and other agencies evaluating grants to develop new drugs to treat Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders. He has served on numerous prestigious editorial and scientific review boards, contributed to over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and participated in symposiums and conferences the world over as he continues to pursue the development of effective diagnostic tools for the prevention of Alzheimer's.