Dr Merson completed his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in 2006, demonstrating the critical role of epigenetics in the regulation of neural stem cell function and adult neurogenesis. He then took up a postdoctoral position within the Multiple Sclerosis Group at the Howard Florey Institute and was awarded a Betty Cuthbert Training Fellowship (2007-2010) jointly funded by the NHMRC and Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia. In 2013, he established his own laboratory within the Multiple Sclerosis Division at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and in the same year, was awarded a Melbourne Neuroscience Institute Fellowship. In 2016, he was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship and appointed Group Leader in MS Research at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash Univerity. His research examines the life cycle of the oligodendrocyte, the cell type responsible for myelination within the central nervous system focusing on how oligodendrocytes are generated during development, how they are regenerated after injury and their role in supporting the function of axons.