Gareth Morgan MD, PhD

Dr. Gareth Morgan is a Professor of Medicine at NYU s Grossman School of Medicine whose research focus has been on characterizing the myeloma genome to identify disease drivers and predisposition loci. Following initial work focused on developing the polymerase chain reaction for clinical application in chronic myeloid leukemia and lymphoproliferative diseases, pioneering the fields of clonality testing and minimal residual disease monitoring, he shifted his attention to studying the genome of multiple myeloma.

He was the first to describe the presence of intra-clonal heterogeneity in myeloma, providing evidence for a Darwinian-based model of disease progression and for the generation of refractory disease based on branching evolutionary patterns. He developed this model further, successfully describing the molecular lesions and mutational signatures underlying the transition from benign monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance through smoldering myeloma and newly diagnosed myeloma to plasma cell leukemia. This work has fundamentally changed ou understandings and classification of myeloma and its precursor conditions, as well as the approach to treatment, bringing the field to a more personalized approach.

He has carried out several large GWAS analyses together with international collaborators, including British, German, and Swedish groups, to define the genetic loci and signatures associated with the risk of developing myeloma and their relevance to the excess risk seen in African Americans. He has developed and been PI on several large Phase III studies that have set the current standard of care for myeloma treatment in both younger and older patients. He has mentored 35 investigators in the past 15 years, of whom 14 have gone on to careers as clinical investigators.