Prior to her appointment in 1999 as Bloomer Professor of Neurology, University of Birmingham, Karen Morrison held an MRC Training Fellowship and a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship at the University of Oxford. She combines basic and clinical research with teaching and clinical neurology, leading a laboratory group investigating molecular genetic mechanisms in the neurodegenerative disorders of motor neurone disease and Parkinson’s disease, which has involved establishing DNA Banks for both conditions. She directs the Birmingham MND Care and Research Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, caring for patients with MND and with specific interests in familial forms of the disease and running clinical trials. She teaches on the topics of neurology and genetics on various university courses and is passionate about public engagement, with frequent talks to lay groups, schools and patient charities.