Team
Meet the Morgan Lab team.
Principal Investigator
Dr Rhys Morgan
Email: rhys.morgan@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1273877861
Address: Office 3C19, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
X: @RhysMorganLab
Bluesky: @rhysmorganlab.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhys-morgan-8332991bb/
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0429-6294
Dr Morgan completed his BSc in Biomedical Science at the University of Portsmouth before completing a PhD in Haematology at Cardiff University. His thesis examined the role of Wnt signalling in AML under the supervision of Professors Alan Burnett, Richard Darley and Alex Tonks. From here, Rhys joined the School of Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol to pursue his interests in signal transduction and cancer biology. Under the supervision of Professors Christos Paraskeva and Ann Williams, he undertook post-doctoral studies investigating the role of the stem cell marker LGR5 and Wnt/EGF signal transduction in colorectal cancer.
Whilst at Bristol, Rhys was awarded a Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund (KKLF) Fellowship in 2016 targeting Wnt/β-catenin signalling in AML which remains a research focus. In 2018 Rhys moved his fellowship to the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex to establish his own leukaemia research laboratory and is now a Associate Professor of Cancer Biology in the department of Biochemistry & Biomedicine.
Research Fellow
Dr Megan Wagstaff
Email: m.wagstaff@sussex.ac.uk
X: @meganwagstaff
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-wagstaff-080551149/
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9160-8676
Phone: +44 (0)1273873610 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C18A, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
Megan graduated with a first-class honours in Biochemistry from the University of Essex. She joined the lab in October 2018, completing a PhD examining novel β-catenin protein interactions in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) alongside teaching and outreach duties in the School of Life Sciences. Megan has now passed her viva and is a post-doc in the group continuing to investigate dysregulated Wnt/β-catenin signalling in AML where she has significant responsibilities in the day-to-day running of the lab and research/undergraduate student supervision.
Research Fellow
Dr Aaron Goff
Email: a.goff@sussex.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-goff-907b12115/
Phone: +44 (0)1273873610 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C18A, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
Aaron graduated with a first-class honours in Biological Sciences from the University of Plymouth, followed by a Masters of Research specialising in microbiology from the University of Southampton. He completed a PhD in 2022 at the Brighton & Sussex Medical School, characterising the physiology of in vivo Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a transcriptomics approach, for novel drug discovery. He joined the lab in January 2024 and is investigating β-catenin interactions with RNA binding proteins (RBP) and RNA with the aim of designing new therapeutics for AML treatment.
Research Fellow
Dr Okan Sevim
Email: os254@sussex.ac.uk
X: @oknsvm
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/okan-sevim-98689a255/
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3348-3913
Phone: +44 (0)1273872626 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C22, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
Okan undertook his Turkish Ministry of National Education-funded PhD in the Morgan lab. Originally, Okan graduated from Cumhuriyet University with a first-class major in Molecular Biology & Genetics and a double first-class major in Biochemistry. He completed the Cancer Cell Biology MSc from the University of Sussex with Distinction, where he undertook a research project in the Morgan group. He completed his PhD in April 2025 examining post-transcriptional roles for β-catenin in myeloid cells with RBP networks. Okan has now begun a Worldwide Cancer Research-funded project examining WT1 mutations in AML in addition to retaining his doctoral research interests.
Alumni
Dr Samuel Olaitan
Email: S.Olaitan@sussex.ac.uk
X: @samuel_olaitans
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-olaitan-2410b363/
Phone: +44 (0)1273872626 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C22, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
Samuel is a lecturer from Lagos State University who secured a TET (Tertiary Education Training) funded scholarship from the Nigerian government to study with us. He joined the lab in October 2020 and his thesis examined Wnt signalling events at the cell membrane of myeloid leukaemia cells, with the ultimate aim of discovering new immunotherapeutic targets. Sam completed his studies in March 2025 and graduated in Summer 2025.
PhD Student/Clinical Fellow
Dr Hyun Park
Email: h.park@bsms.ac.uk
X: @hyun_park7
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyun-park-a1b91b147/
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1895-2504
Phone: +44 (0)1273872626 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C22, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
Hyun is a clinician currently undertaking an Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) post at the Oxford Deanery. Dr Park studied medicine at Imperial College London with an intercalated BSc in Medical Sciences with Haematology. To support his progression into Haematology specialist training, Hyun completed a jointly supervised PhD project between Prof Timothy Chevassut and Dr Rhys Morgan targeting novel β-catenin interactions in AML cells and their impact on leukaemia/normal HSC growth.
PhD Student/Clinical Fellow
Dr David Palmer
Email: bsms9xy2@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1273872626 (Office) +44 (0)1273878683 (Lab)
Address: Office 3C22, JMS Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG
David is a haematology registrar currently in the KSS deanery. Dr Palmer completed his medical degree in 2014 at the University of Exeter and completed an intercalated BSc honours degree in developmental biology from King’s College London. He completed his medical training in London and he is a member of the Royal College of Physicians. In 2019, he was awarded a scholarship to study an MSc in Cancer Science at the University College London, for which he was awarded a distinction. His PhD project was supervised by Dr Rhys Morgan and Professor Timothy Chevassut and was focused on novel molecular disruption downstream of RUNX1 mutations and how this could be therapeutically targeted in BP-CML.