Introduction: Professor Gillian Morriss-Kay DSc

Abstract

For the symposium 3rd Advances in Craniosynostosis: Basic Science to Clinical Practice, we were delighted to introduce Emeritus Professor of Developmental Anatomy Gillian Morriss-Kay as the guest speaker. Gillian pursued a distinguished career as a developmental embryologist, principally at Cambridge, where she undertook her PhD research with David Woollam, and subsequently in Oxford, where she worked in what was originally the Department of Human Anatomy (now ‘DPAG’) from 1976 until well after her official retirement in 2004.

We were both fortunate to meet and work with Gillian at a crucial time for the study of craniosynostosis. During the late 1980s, vertebrate biologists started to ask what the relevance of genes identified in Drosophila might have for the development of structures in their chosen model organism, but it is fair to say that the cranial sutures were not high on their shopping list. However, as Gillian recounts (Morriss-Kay, 2024), the first disease gene identifications in craniosynostosis (MSX2, FGFR1 and FGFR2), which came in a flurry during 1993 and 1994, immediately showed that cranial sutures must be rather interesting after all, because the newly implicated genes were all already well established in the developmental biologist's lexicon. Gillian's hard-won experience in craniofacial anatomy placed her in a perfect position to complement the efforts of human geneticists. One of us (AOMW) still winces at the memory of our first meeting on 29 September 1992, when he confused the facial prominences and branchial arches on a mouse tissue cross-section, something Gillian was not going to allow to pass without comment! This experience only reinforced the need to collaborate on this new venture. By another fortunate accident of timing, the other of us (SI) arrived at Gillian's lab on a Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship just 2 months after the first FGFR2 mutation was identified in Apert syndrome (on 27 September 1994). Gillian describes what happened next.

In addition to her important work on the molecular pathology of craniosynostosis, Gillian played a key role in arguably the most surprising discovery this century about the skull—that the frontal and parietal bones, so similar looking osteologically, actually have entirely distinct developmental origins. For all these works, as well as her dedication to the Journal of Anatomy (extending well beyond ‘retirement’) and leadership role in the Anatomical Society, Gillian very deservedly was recognised with the Society's foremost award, the Prize and Gold Medal, in 2021.

Gillian's article title finishes with the word ‘future’. As an illustration of the wonderful way in which, if you keeping chipping away at your field of science, then new connections often continue to be made, partial loss-of-function variants in one of the enzymes (DHRS3) in the biosynthetic pathway between retinol (vitamin A) and retinoic acid, the system that Gillian originally worked on over 50 years ago and featured in her talk, were recently identified as a cause of craniosynostosis (manuscript under review). Indeed, we all look forward to seeing what further surprises the future may hold.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.