About

Shaunna Morrison is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Her research explores large, interdisciplinary questions through a mineralogical lens, focusing on how minerals record their formation history to understand the evolution of environments, planets, and the universe. Morrison builds on her technical and theoretical background in crystallography, crystal chemistry, and martian mineralogy to develop advanced analytical techniques, including multidimensional, multivariate analysis, visualization, machine learning, and data-driven approaches. Her work aims to better understand the complex relationships among Earth and planetary materials, their formation environments through deep time, and their coevolution with the biosphere, including identifying and characterizing mineralogical signs of life.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Immunology
• Pediatrics
• Biology
• Pathology
• Microbiology
• Dermatology
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Antibiotic use and financial impact of a comprehensive beta-lactam allergy management program

  Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Objective: A multidisciplinary beta-lactam allergy management program was implemented at our community medical center to facilitate allergy documentation, conduct penicillin skin testing (PST), and decrease non-beta-lactam (NBL) use. This study measures PST-associated antibiotic use and financial outcomes. Design: Cohort study. Setting: Non-teaching, urban, community medical center within a multi-hospital health system. Patients: Adult inpatients who underwent PST and received antibiotic therapy during a 5-year period at our facility. Methods: Demographics, allergies, laboratory results, PST outcome, and antimicrobial regimens were assessed. Actual NBL days of therapy (DOT) were collected from the electronic medical record. NBL DOT that patients would have received without PST were modeled by forecasting the original regimen to end of inpatient treatment. Difference between actual and forecasted DOT was deemed DOT avoided (DOT-A) for each consecutively enrolled patient. The financial analysis evaluated cumulative NBL cost avoided. PST outcomes and average time from antibiotic initiation to PST were assessed. Results: The study included 600 patients who underwent PST an average of 3.7 days into treatment. The most common indication was acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (23.9%). PST results were negative in 98% of patients. NBL DOT-A was 944.8/1000DT (8.8 DOT-A per intervention) accounting for an estimated cost savings of $206,500 ($344.10 per intervention), driven primarily by aztreonam avoidance. Conclusions: This study highlights significant avoidance of NBL DOT in one of the largest identified cohort of inpatients undergoing PST. Associated cost avoidance contributes to the sustainability and longevity of the allergy management program.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Beta-lactam comprehensive allergy management program in a community medical center

  Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology · 2023 · 1 citations

  • Medicine
  • Pediatrics
  • Internal medicine

  Objective: The Beta-lactam Comprehensive Allergy Management Program (CAMP) was implemented to facilitate complete beta-lactam allergy history documentation in the electronic medical record (EMR) and increase beta-lactam utilization. The study objective was to assess the rate of complete allergy histories and days of antimicrobial therapy (DOT) before versus after CAMP implementation. Design: Quasi-experimental study with interrupted time-series analysis. Setting: Non-teaching, urban, and community medical center within a multi-hospital health system. Patients: Adult inpatients with a beta-lactam allergy receiving antimicrobial therapy. Methods: The multidisciplinary CAMP team screened, interviewed, and collected allergy history details of adult inpatients with a beta-lactam allergy receiving antimicrobial therapy starting January 4, 2021. Patients were stratified as high, moderate, or low risk of IgE-mediated allergy and referred to an allergist for skin testing or drug challenge. The EMR was updated with interview details and drug challenge or skin test results. The primary endpoint was rate of complete allergy history documentation before (12/1/18-4/1/19) compared to after (1/4/21-5/1/21) program implementation. The secondary endpoint was days of inpatient beta-lactam therapy. Implementation logistics, de-labeling rate, and antimicrobial therapy changes were evaluated. Results: = 0.009). Conclusion: Implementation of a comprehensive beta-lactam allergy management program was associated with higher rates of complete beta-lactam allergy history and beta-lactam use.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Beta-lactam Allergy Assessment and Skin Testing (BLAAST)

  Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2022

  • Medicine
  • Dermatology
  • Immunology
  PublisherDOI

• Disappearance of Vaccine-Type Invasive Pneumococcal Disease and Emergence of Serotype 19A in a Minority Population with a High Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Low Childhood Immunization Rates

  Clinical and Vaccine Immunology · 2009-06-11 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  We analyzed the epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) following introduction of pneumococcal conjugated vaccine in an urban population with a 2% human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence and history of low childhood immunization rates. We observed near-elimination of vaccine-type IPD. Substantial disease remains due to non-vaccine-type pneumococci, highlighting the need to increase pneumococcal immunization among HIV-infected adults.

  PublisherDOI

• Plasmacytoma Development in Mice Injected with Silicone Gels

  Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 1996-01-01 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Induction of Plasmacytomas in Genetically Susceptible Mice with Silicon Gels

  Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 1995-01-01 · 5 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• BACK TO BASICS

  Pediatrics in Review · 1994-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Introduction Unlike physicians practicing in the 1940s, who had only sulfonamides and penicillin to treat infections, practitioners now choose from a broad (and sometimes overwhelming) number of antibiotics. However, trends in emerging antimicrobial resistance may force us to take a giant step backward to that frightening situation of the past of having bacteria that are essentially "untreatable" by any of our available antibiotics. This article is an overview of some of the microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology critical to the rational use of antibiotics in today's practice. It summarizes the basic mechanisms of action of some commonly used antibiotics and briefly discusses the emergence of resistance to several common pathogens. Structures of Bacteria Important to Antibiotic Action The outermost component of most bacteria is the cell wall, a multilayered structure located external to the cytoplasmic membrane. The cell wall is composed of an inner layer of peptidoglycan, a complex interwoven lattice of linear sugars (glycan) that are cross-linked by peptide chains. Peptidoglycan provides the rigid support by which the cell maintains its characteristic shape. Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria differ in their cell wall structures (Figure). In Gram-positive organisms, the peptidoglycan layer is a thick (15 to 80 nm) multilayer and may have a thin layer of teichoic acid outside the peptidoglycan.

  PublisherDOI

• Induction of Plasmacytomas With Silicone Gel Genetically Susceptible Strains of Mice

  JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 1994-07-20 · 97 citations

  article

  BACKGROUND: Plasmacytomas can be induced in high frequency in susceptible strains of mice by the intraperitoneal introduction of plastics or paraffin oils, including the chemically defined oil pristane (2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane). These materials persist in the peritoneal cavity, where they induce chronic inflammation during the long periods before plasmacytomas develop. Such plasmacytomas appear to arise from B cells carrying chromosomal translocations that affect c-myc transcription. PURPOSE: Because silicone gels are in widespread medical use and share many of the characteristics of other materials known to be inducers of plasmacytomas, we wished to determine their capacity to induce plasmacytomas in mice. METHODS: In a series of parallel experiments, corn oil, pristane, silicone oil (dimethylpolysiloxane), or silicone gel from commercially obtained mammary implants was injected intraperitoneally into plasmacytoma-susceptible BALB/cAnPt-A and congenic BALB/cAnPt.DBA/2-Idh1-Pep3 mice, as well as into plasmacytoma-resistant C57BL/6N, C3H/HeJ, DBA/2N, and (BALB/c x DBA/2)F1 mice. Mice were examined at least once every 2 weeks for signs of abdominal tumor or weight loss and screened every 4-6 weeks for peritoneal plasmacytoma cells by peritoneal lavage. Tissues were examined by histologic and immunohistochemical techniques. Metaphase chromosome spreads were made from ascitic plasmacytomas without Colcemid treatment, and metaphase plates were G-banded according to standard techniques. The t(12;15) or t(6;15) translocation chromosomes were identified under the microscope in at least five metaphase plates of high banding quality. Mice were autopsied 125-400 days after the injection of test material. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry were utilized to determine the composition of the silicone oil and silicone gel used in the injections. RESULTS: The silicone gels tested induced plasmacytomas in BALB/cAnPt-A and BALB/cAnPt.DBA/2-Idh1-Pep3 mice. Neither corn oil used as a control nor 1000-centistoke or 12,500-centistoke dimethylpolysiloxane induced plasmacytomas in these mice. The plasmacytomas were transplantable in syngeneic hosts. Cytogenetic studies of 41 silicone-induced plasmacytomas showed that 30 had t(12;15) translocations, eight had t(6;15) translocations, and three had no translocations. CONCLUSIONS: The silicone gels used in mammary implants, which contain a complex mixture of different siloxanes, induced peritoneal plasmacytomas in genetically susceptible mice. Silicone gels provide new chemically defined materials that are effective inducers of plasmacytomas in BALB/cAnPt-A and BALB/cAnPt.DBA/2-Idh1-Pep3 mice. Further studies will be required to determine which of the components of these gels are the active materials.

  PublisherDOI

• Cutaneous manifestations of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in children

  Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 1988-05-01 · 72 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Dysphagia in the pediatric AIDS population

  Dysphagia · 1988-09-01 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant F32AI007353

  NIH · $56k

Frequent coauthors

• Michael Potter

  8 shared

• James M. Oleske

  5 shared

• Bart Holland

  Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

  4 shared

• Jaap Goudsmit

  Harvard University

  4 shared

• Leon G. Epstein

  Lurie Children's Hospital

  4 shared

• Edward M. Connor

  AIDS Clinical Trials Group

  4 shared

• Frederick W. Miller

  National Institutes of Health

  4 shared

• Elizabeth Story‐Roller

  Johns Hopkins University

  2 shared

Labs

• Earth and Planetary Science Isotope Laboratory (EPSIL)PI