Cynthia C. Morton, PhD

Brigham And Women's Hospital

Academic Titles

Professor, Pathology, Harvard Medical School

William Lambert Richardson Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Member, Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics

Leadership Roles

Institutional Representative for BWH, Executive Committee

Member, Center Scientific Council

Research Abstract

The Morton Laboratory (http://mortonlab.bwh.harvard.edu/) has as its research focus three projects which can be grouped under the area of human genetics. One effort underway is to identify and characterize genes involved in uterine leiomyomata (http://www.fibroids.net). These benign smooth muscle tumors are the most common indication for hysterectomy and provide a valuable system for dissecting critical molecular events that discriminate benign from malignant neoplasms. A consortium genome wide association study (FibroGENE) is being performed to identify genes which predispose women to develop these tumors. Another ongoing project is to clone and characterize genes involved in hearing and to develop mouse models for human hearing disorders (http://hearing.bwh.harvard.edu). Naturally occurring apparently balanced human chromosome rearrangements found in association with congenital anomalies are being used to identify genes critical in human development in the Developmental Genome Anatomy Project (DGAP) (http://dgap.harvard.edu).