Morris Brown has transformed understanding and treatment of Hypertension and its commonest cause, Primary Aldosteronism. A Cambridge Classics graduate, he returned there to pioneer Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, and is now a hybrid Clinical Pharmacologist and Endocrinologist at Queen Mary University and Barts Hospital, London.
Morris's laboratory and clinical research aims to find 'the right drug for the right person'. His innovative, rotational clinical trials led to the AB/CD rule which underpins Hypertension guidelines, and to the discovery that resistant hypertension and Primary Aldosteronism are largely synonymous, responding to a new drug class, aldosterone synthase inhibitors. His group discovered most of the acquired gene variants causing aldosterone-producing nodules in the adrenal gland, and that the variants predict and explain which patients' hypertension can be completely cured.
Following development, with Cambridge and London colleagues, of a PET-CT using molecular dyes to detect the nodules, he found these can be cured by a new outpatient procedure – targeted thermal therapy (TTT). Morris has received the highest international awards in Hypertension (Tigerstedt Lifetime Achievement) and Endocrinology (Aurbach translational research).
Professional position
- Professor of Endocrine Hypertension, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
