In 2012, the Hamon Charitable Foundation donated $10 million to establish an endowment at CRI, and in recognition of that gift the Morrison Laboratory has been named the Hamon Laboratory for Stem Cell and Cancer Biology.

Stem cell biology encompasses fundamental scientific questions as well as opportunities to improve
the treatment of patients. To exploit these opportunities it will be necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function, and the ways in which these mechanisms can go awry in
the context of disease.

Stem cells form tissues during development then maintain those tissues throughout adult life. Defects in stem cell function can lead to birth defects, deficits in tissue regeneration, as well as cancer.

To better understand the normal growth and regeneration of tissues as well as diseases of growth and regeneration, we are investigating the mechanisms that regulate stem cell function in the nervous and blood-forming systems, and the ways in which these mechanisms can be hijacked by cancer cells.