Lindsay Morton Awarded Scientific Tenure by the NIH
, by DCEG Staff
Lindsay Morton
In October 2015, Lindsay Morton, Ph.D., was awarded scientific tenure by the NIH. Dr. Morton investigates the causes of and risk factors for second primary malignancies and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). In the study of second cancers, Dr. Morton evaluates the carcinogenic effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy to treat a primary cancer – both recognized causes of second cancers—as well as possible risk factors, including environmental, lifestyle, and genetic susceptibility, and the interaction of these factors with treatment-related exposures.
Her investigation of NHL seeks to illuminate mechanisms of lymphomagenesis for various lymphoma subtypes resulting from environmental and genetic risk factors. To have sufficient power to study relatively rare disease subtypes, Dr. Morton convened an international consortium of case-control studies, known as InterLymph. As one of the leaders of InterLymph’s NHL Subtypes Project, a consortium-wide initiative involving 20 studies and information on 11 NHL subtypes, she conducted the most comprehensive analysis of NHL etiology to date. The effort resulted in the description of a broad range of putative risk factors, including medical history, lifestyle, and family history, as they relate to specific lymphoma subtypes.
Dr. Morton has been recognized for her research contributions with the NCI Career Development Innovation Award, the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence, and the Lymphoma Foundation of America’s Young Scientist Award. She was recently elected to the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.