Crossing Medicine’s Final Frontier:

Dr. Cindi Morshead’s Lifelong Pursuit to Cure Neurological Disease

By Kristen Ashworth

Dr. Cindi Morshead believes that uncovering effective, long-term treatments to repair the nervous system in neurological diseases reflects one of the last frontiers yet to be crossed in medical research. Harnessing the regenerative potential of stem cells could be our passport to the other side.

With decades-long expertise in the field of stem cells and neural repair, Dr. Morshead is leading the charge at the University of Toronto to find cures for neurological diseases. As Division Chair of Anatomy in the Department of Surgery and crossappointed to a multitude of UofT-affiliated research institutions including the Institute of Medical Science, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Donnelly Centre, and Rehabilitation Science Institute, Dr. Morshead has propelled her research program onto the international stage by using an integrative mindset. Her lab brings together an impressive docket of neuroscientists, stem cell biologists, and biomedical engineers in order to unite their expertise for a common goal–heal the damaged brain.

The challenges in treatment discovery for neurological diseases are substantial. For one, neurological diseases are vast, complex, and variable, and encompass a broad spectrum of conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and spinal cord injury. To add to the challenge, unlike most other major organs, the brain is one of few that isn’t meant to repair itself. As such, neurological diseases are devastatingly progressive, and at present, largely incurable. However, Dr. Morshead explains that the regenerative potential of stem cells holds promise in the ability to promote neural repair in the brain and nervous system. The Morshead research team uses the foundational qualities of stem cells to study a versatile array of strategies for brain self-repair, including endogenous cell reprogramming, electric field stimulation, and metformin-induced neural stem cell activation, in both in vivo and in vitro models of disease.

‘Neural stem cells’ are three words that have been in Dr. Morshead’s vocabulary for quite a while. In fact, dating back to the very beginnings of her research career as a summer undergraduate student in the lab of Dr. Derek van der Kooy at UofT in 1985. Though at the time she was completing a degree in human physiology and philosophy, Dr. Morshead developed a keen interest in neuroscience after taking an upper-year neuropsychopharmacology course—a far cry from her philosophy prerequisites. Today, Dr. Morshead reflects that it was likely the convergence of the philosophical nature of cognition with the physiological operation of the human brain that drew her towards research in neurobiology and neurodegeneration. After all, neurodegeneration implicates the very structures that allow us to interact with the world—in a sense, the brain defines our humanity.

Fueling her passion for these intersecting disciplines, Dr. Morshead continued her journey in research as a PhD student at the van der Kooy lab. Through her thesis work, she was able to identify the neural stem cell niche in the adult brain. At the time of her studies, the scientific community was aware of the seminal finding that neural stem cells were present in the adult brain and Dr. Morshead’s pioneering discovery of their locale in the brain provided pivotal insight on the cellular and molecular microenvironment that regulates neural stem cell function, fate, and behaviour. This provided the fundamental groundwork for the advancement of research in neural stem cell biology for decades to come.

After the successes of her PhD, Dr. Morshead continued her momentum as a postdoctoral fellow in the van der Kooy lab. She garnered interest in the application of neural stem cells for neural repair, which paved the way for the starting of her own research program in 2003 within the Department of Surgery. Throughout her 20-year tenure at UofT, Dr. Morshead has mentored hundreds of students in her lab, as an advisor outside her lab for those seeking her expertise, and previously, as an IMS Graduate Coordinator for several years. Her significant contributions in research, leadership, teaching, and mentorship have culminated with her achievement of UofT’s highly esteemed Lister Prize; the Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship; and the Institute of Medical Sciences 50 Faces, to name a few.

With such a rich background of accomplishments and experiences, I asked Dr. Morshead what she considers to be the most pivotal achievements in her life. The first she shared was deeply personal: “Being a mom,” she said. “I have two boys, and they’re everything to me.” She added that having a family has allowed her to maintain a healthy balance between work and life and has kept her motivated in her career. In addition to motherhood, Dr. Morshead described the great personal reward she has found in collaborating with her scientific peers. “I love collaborating in the same way that I love mentoring. You’re just always learning something new. And it’s also knowing that they [her peers] respect you and want to work with you that is very rewarding.” After all, gaining respect as a woman in science is something with which Dr. Morshead has become well-acquainted throughout her career. As one of six female scientists in a building of 30 faculty at the Donnelly Centre where her lab resides, she acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the landscape for women in science and academia.

If finding a cure for neurological diseases is a last frontier in medical research, Dr. Morshead stands at the forefront. In the future, her team’s contributions in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine may help improve millions of lives. How do you get to this stature, of which many of us graduate students would reflect on as being at the pinnacle of success as a scientist? Dr. Morshead offered two mainstay pieces of advice: one, find a mentor—someone with whom you can truly connect and entrust. Two, put in the hard work to achieve the goals you are passionate about.

At the precipice of her academic career, Dr. Morshead adopted a simple yet powerful motto: “I’m going to keep doing things as long as I like them.” She credits this mantra for guiding her journey and shaping her into the person she is now. Her remarkable achievements—as a scientist, mother, professor, mentor, and woman trailblazer—serve as concrete evidence to us all that the principle of her motto is indeed effective; when you are driven by passion, you really can change the world.