John C. Morris, M.D.

Director, Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Memory and Aging Project, and Center for Aging; Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology; Professor, Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis


John C. Morris, M.D., is the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology; Professor of Pathology and Immunology; Professor of Physical Therapy; Professor of Occupational Therapy; and Director of the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Memory and Aging Project at Washington University School of Medicine.  He was Director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, Washington University from 2001-2011.

Dr. Morris earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. He completed residencies in internal medicine at Akron General Medical Center and in neurology at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, both in Ohio, and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuropharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Research interests of Dr. Morris include healthy aging and Alzheimer dementia, antecedent biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in nondemented elderly to evaluate risk for Alzheimer dementia, and trials of investigational drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer dementia.

Dr. Morris has authored or co-authored 4 books and more than 570 published articles (current h-index 118). He currently is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Morris is a member of several professional societies, including the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association, and serves on the editorial board for the Annals of Neurology. He serves also on numerous scientific and community advisory boards. He has received many honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alzheimer’s Association (2004); the MetLife Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease (2004); the Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s, and Related Dementias from the American Academy of Neurology (2005); the Physician-Scientist Lifetime Achievement Award, Barnes-Jewish Hospital  Foundation, St. Louis, MO (2005); Neville Grant Award for Clinical Excellence from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO (2006);); Washington University Academic Women’s Network Mentor Award (2008); the American Neurological Association 2009 Soriano Lectureship; the 2009 Srinavastan Lectureship, Chennai, India; the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award, Washington University (2010).  In 2013, he received the 2013 Peter H. Raven Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Science of St. Louis; the Washington University School of Medicine 2013 Second Century Award; the 2013 Medical & Scientific Honoree from the Alzheimer’s Association; and the 2013 Washington University School of Medicine Second Century Award. He is ranked in the top 1% of investigators in the field of Neuroscience and Behavior by Essential Science Indicators database.

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Barthélemy, N. R., Salvadó, G., Schindler, S., He, Y., Janelidze, S., Collij, L. E., Saef, B., Henson, R. L., Chen, C. D., Gordon, B. A., Li, Y., La Joie, R., Benzinger, T. L. S., Morris, J. C., Mattsson-Carlgren, N., Palmqvist, S., Ossenkoppele, R., Rabinovici, G. D., Stomrud, E., Bateman, R. J. & Hansson, O. Highly Accurate Blood Test for Alzheimer’s Disease Comparable or Superior to Clinical CSF Tests, Nature Medicine, February 21, 2024, Read More

Grober, E., Petersen, K. K., Lipton, R. B., Hassenstab, J., Morris, J. C., Gordon, B. A., & Ezzati, A. Association of Stages of Objective Memory Impairment With Incident Symptomatic Cognitive Impairment in Cognitively Normal Individuals, Neurology, April 19, 2023, Read More

Schindler, S. E., Cruchaga, C., Joseph, A., McCue, L., Farias, F. H. G., Wilkins, C. H., Deming, Y., Henson, R. L., Mikesell, R. J., Piccio, L., Llibre-Guerra, J. J., Moulder, K. L., Fagan, A. M., Ances, B. M., Benzinger, T. L. S., Xiong, C., Holtzman, D. M., & Morris, J. C. African Americans Have Differences in CSF Soluble TREM2 and Associated Genetic Variants, Neurology Genetics, March 4, 2021, Read More

Barroeta-Espar, I., Weinstock, L. D., Perez-Nievas, B. G., Meltzer, A. C., Siao Tick Chong, M., Amaral, A. C., Murray, M. E., Moulder, K. L., Morris, J. C., Cairns, N. J., Parisi, J. E., Lowe, V. J., Petersen, R. C., Kofler, J., Ikonomovic, M. D., López, O., Klunk, W. E., … Gomez-Isla, T. Distinct Cytokine Profiles in human brains resilient to Alzheimer’s pathology, Neuroiology of Disease, October 15, 2018, Read More

Schindler, S. E., Karikari, T. K., Ashton, N. J., Henson, R. L., Yarasheski, K. E., West, T., Meyer, M. R., Kirmess, K. M., Li, Y., Saef, B., Moulder, K. L., Bradford, D., Fagan, A. M., Gordon, B. A., Benzinger, T. L. S., Balls-Berry, J., Bateman, R. J., Xiong, C., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., … Morris, J. C. Effect of Race on Prediction of Brain Amyloidosis by Plasma Aβ42/Aβ40, Phosphorylated Tau, and Neurofilament Light, Neurology, April 21, 2022, Read More

Barthélemy, N. R., Saef, B., Li, Y., Gordon, B. A., He, Y., Horie, K., Stomrud, E., Salvadó, G., Janelidze, S., Sato, C., Ovod, V., Henson, R. L., Fagan, A. M., Benzinger, T. L. S., Xiong, C., Morris, J. C., Hansson, O., Bateman, R. J., & Schindler, S. E. CSF tau phosphorylation occupancies at T217 and T205 represent improved biomarkers of amyloid and tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, Nature Aging, March 13, 2023, Read More

Stout, S. H., Babulal, G. M., Ma, C., Carr, D. B., Head, D. M., Grant, E. A., Williams, M. M., Holtzman, D. M., Fagan, A. M., Morris, J. C., & Roe, C. M. Driving cessation over a 24-hour period: dementia severity and cerebrospinal fluid markers, Alzheimer's & Dementia, May 1, 2018, Read More

Vos, S. J. B., Gordon, B. A., Su, Y., Visser, P. J., Holtzman, D. M., Morris, J. C., Fagan, A. M., & Benzinger, T. L. S. NIA-AA staging of preclinical Alzhiemer disease: discordance and concordance of CSF and imaging biomarkers, Neurobiology of Aging, April 4, 2016, Read More

Ances, B. M., Christensen, J. J., Teshome, M., Taylor, J., Xiong, C., Aldea, P., Fagan, A. M., Holtzman, D. M., Morris, J. C., Mintun, M. A., & Clifford, D. B. Cognitively unimpaired HIV-positive subjects do not have icreased C-11 PiB A case-control study, Neurology, July 13, 2010, Read More

Ovod, V., Ramsey, K. N., Mawuenyega, K. G., Bollinger, J. G., Hicks, T., Schneider, T., Sullivan, M., Paumier, K., Holtzman, D. M., Morris, J. C., Benzinger, T., Fagan, A. M., Patterson, B. W., & Bateman, R. J. Amyloid beta concentrations and stable isotope labeling kinetics of human plasma specific to central nervous system amyloidosis, Alzheimer's & Dementia, July 19, 2017, Read More

Horie, K., Salvadó, G., Barthélemy, N. R., Janelidze, S., Li, Y., He, Y., Saef, B., Chen, C. D., Jiang, H., Strandberg, O., Pichet Binette, A., Palmqvist, S., Sato, C., Sachdev, P., Koyama, A., Gordon, B. A., Benzinger, T. L. S., Holtzman, D. M., Morris, J. C., Mattsson-Carlgren, N., … Bateman, R. J. CSF MTBR-tau243 is a specific biomarker of tau tangle pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, Nature Medicine, July 13, 2023, Read More

Suárez-Calvet, M., Araque Caballero, M. Á., Kleinberger, G., Bateman, R. J., Fagan, A. M., Morris, J. C., Levin, J., Danek, A., Ewers, M., & Haass, C. Early changes in CSF sTREM2 in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease occur after amyloid deposition and neuronal injury, Science Translational Medicine, December 14, 2016, Read More

Petersen, K. K., Ezzati, A., Lipton, R. B., Gordon, B. A., Hassenstab, J., Morris, J. C., & Grober, E. Associations of Stages of Objective Memory Impairment with Cerebrospinal Fluid and Neuroimaging Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease, Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease, November 3, 2022, Read More

Kinnunen, K. M., Cash, D. M., Poole, T., Frost, C., Benzinger, T. L. S., Ahsan, R. L., Leung, K. K., Cardoso, M. J., Modat, M., Malone, I. B., Morris, J. C., Bateman, R. J., Marcus, D. S., Goate, A., Salloway, S. P., Correia, S., Sperling, R. A., Chhatwal, J. P., Mayeux, R. P., Brickman, A. M., Martins, R. N., Farlow, M. R., Ghetti, B., Saykin, A. J., Jack, Jr., C. R., Schofield, P. R., McDade, E., Weiner, M. W., Ringman, J. M., Thompson, P. M., Masters, C. L., Rowe, C. C., Rossor, M. N., Ourselin, S., & Fox, N. C. Presymptomatic atrophy in autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease: a serial magnetic resonance imaging study, Alzheimer's & Dementia, July 22, 2017, Read More