Robert Murphy
Robert C. Murphy, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Aurora, CO.
Graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Chemistry, 1970) and had postdoctoral training in the Department of Biological Chemistry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA in the laboratory of Professor Manfred Karnovsky (1970-71). He joined the faculty of the University of Colorado as an Assistant Professor in 1971 and was promoted to full Professor in 1980. From 1989-2003 he was a Senior Faculty Member at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, CO. While carrying out postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, a collaboration was arranged between Dr. Karnovsky and Dr. K. Frank Austen, where Dr. Murphy began his studies on the structural characterization of slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis. This work was carried out in close collaboration with Dr. Robert Orange who was a fellow in Dr. Austen's laboratory. In 1978 while on sabbatical from the University of Colorado, Dr. Murphy joined the laboratory of Professor Bengt Samuelsson as a Visiting Scientist at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden in order to devote full time on the structural characterization of SRS-A. This year's sabbatical led to the final structure elucidation of SRS-A as leukotriene C4. Dr. Murphy's research activities have centered primarily around the use of mass spectrometry in biochemistry with specific application to studies of arachidonic acid biochemistry. He has been concerned with leukotriene C4 and leukotriene B4 metabolism through structural characterization of the various metabolites. He also has been interested in the mechanism of leukotriene biosynthesis as a consequence of cell-cell interaction in the process called transcellular biosynthesis. From 1991 – 1993 he was elected President of the America Society for Mass Spectrometry at a time when new ionization techniques of mass spectrometry were emerging that facilitated the analysis of nonvolatile molecules, including the numerous metabolites of arachidonic acid and their precursors, including phospholipids. His present research program specifically focuses on details of transcellular biosynthesis and extent of operation of this pathway in vivo, the engagement of reactive oxygen species with membrane lipids and the formation of biologically active substances, and further advancement of mass spectrometry in the area of lipid biochemistry in the emerging field of lipidomics.