Coleen T. Murphy, Ph.D.
148 CARL ICAHN LABORATORY DEPARTMENT OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
LEWIS-SIGLER INSTITUTE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
ctmurphy@princeton.edu PRINCETON, NJ 08544
http://www.molbio1.princeton.edu/labs/murphy/
My research group studies aging and the quantitation of “quality of life with age”. We develop genomic, genetic, metabolomic, biochemical, robotic, and computational approaches, and we use the nematode C. elegans as our model system. My lab is part of the Center for Quantitative Biology, and I am an instructor in Princeton’s Integrated Science Program.
Postdoctoral Training with C. Kenyon, Ph.D., UCSF (2000-05): Longevity Gene Discovery: Microarray Analysis of C. elegans Longevity Mutants.
I developed genomic, genetic, and computational techniques to discover and test transcriptional targets of aging and the Insulin/FOXO longevity pathway; I also tested these targets for their roles in prevention of neurodegenerative disease.
Ph.D., Dept. of Biochemistry, Stanford University,with James A. Spudich, Ph.D. (1993-99): The Role of Variable Loops & the Conserved Core in Myosin Function: Kinetic Analysis of Dictyostelium Myosin II.
I developed pre-steady-state enzymatic assays to probe the roles of variable loops and conserved amino acids in the function of the molecular motor, Myosin; I found that such variable protein regions can play an important role in modifying core motor functions.
B.S., Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences (Chemistry minor), University Honors & Honors in Major, Magna cum Laude, University of Houston, Houston, TX (1992); Crystallization Studies of Apolipoprotein A-II (Senior Honors Thesis)
My senior thesis focused on using amphiphillic molecules to aid in the crystallization of an apolipoprotein, a challenging task in crystallography.
Purification and crystallization of uvrA, w/ Johann Deisenhofer, Ph.D.; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 1992-93
This project involved protein expression, protein purification, crystallization, and preliminary crystallography on this component of nucleotide excision repair.
Protein Kinase 40erk & Alzheimer’s Disease, w/ Hanno Roder, Ph.D., Wuppertal, Germany, 1991
I purified the Alzheimer’s Disease protein, tau, for phosphorylation assays and paired helical filament formation assays.
Honors and Awards
• NIH New Innovator (2008)
• Keck Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research (2008)
• McKnight Scholar in Neuroscience (2008)
• Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award (2008-10)
• Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences (2006-10)
• Sloan Research Fellowship (2006-08)
• Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging, 2006 (declined)
• “Scientist to Watch,” Oct. 2006, The Scientist
• Burroughs-Wellcome Career Awards in the Biomedical Sciences Finalist, 2003
• Ellison Medical Foundation / AFAR Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003-05)
• Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2000-2003)
• American Cancer Society Fellowship, 2000 (declined)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (1994-99)
• NSF Pre-doctoral Fellowship, 1994 (declined)
• Senior Honors Thesis Award, University of Houston, 1992
• American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award, 1992
• Rhodes Scholarship Semi-Finalist, 1992
• Dean’s List, University of Houston, 1988-1992
• Outstanding Student Award, University of Houston German Dept., 1988 and 1989
• Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma, 1988
• National Merit Scholar; Kansas State Scholar; Valedictorian, Spring Hill H.S., KS, 1987
Publications
Kleemann, G.A., and Murphy, C. T., “Endocrine regulation of Aging in C. elegans”, in press.
Murphy, C. T., Lee, S.J., and Kenyon, C., “Tissue entrainment by feedback regulation of insulin gene expression in the endoderm of Caenorhabditis elegans.” (2007) PNAS. 104(48): 19046-50.
Shaw, W.M., Luo, S., Landis, J., Ashraf, J., and Murphy, C. T., “The C. elegans TGF-ß Dauer Pathway Regulates Longevity via Insulin Signaling.” (2007) Curr Biol, Oct 9;17(19):1635-45.
Murphy, C. T. “The Search for DAF-16/FOXO Transcriptional Targets: Approaches and Discoveries.” (2006) Experimental Gerontology. 41(10): 910-21.
Kenyon, C. and Murphy, C. T., “Enrichment of regulatory motifs upstream of predicted DAF-16 targets.” (2006) Nature Genetics 38(4): 397-8.
Murphy, C. T. “Using Whole-Genome Transcriptional Analyses to Discover Molecular Mechanisms of Aging.” (2006) Drug Discovery Today: Disease Mechanisms. 3(1): 41-46.
McCarroll, S. A., Murphy, C. T. Zou S, Pletcher SD, Chin CS, Jan YN, Kenyon C, Bargmann CI, Li H. “Comparing genomic expression patterns across species identifies shared transcriptional profile in aging.” (2004) Nature Genetics 36(2):197-204.
Murphy, C. T. “A Review of Genes that Act Downstream of the DAF-16 FOXO transcription factor to influence the lifespan of C. elegans.” Res. & Persp. in Longevity, Longevity and Frailty, Springer (2005).
Murphy, C. T., McCarroll S, Bargmann CI, Fraser A, Kamath RS, Ahringer J, Li H., & Kenyon C. “Genes that Act Downstream of DAF-16 to Influence the Lifespan of C. elegans.” (2003) Nature 424: 277-83.
• Reviewed in: News and Views, Nature 424: 259-61.
Hsu, A. L., Murphy, C. T., and Kenyon, C. “C. elegans HSF-1 functions with DAF-16 to Regulate Aging and the Heat-Shock Response.” (2003) Science 300: 1142-5.
Murphy, C. T., Rock, R. S., and Spudich, J. A. “A Myosin II Mutation Uncouples ATPase activity from Motility and Shortens Step Size.” (2001) Nature Cell Biology 3: 311-315.
Murphy, C. T. and Spudich, J. A. “Variable Surface Loops and Myosin Activity: Accessories to a Motor,” (2000) J. Mus. Res. Cell Mot. 21:139-151.
Murphy, C. T. and Spudich, J. A. “The Sequence of the Myosin 50-20K Loop Affects Myosin’s Affinity for Actin throughout the Actin-Myosin ATPase Cycle and Its Maximum ATPase Activity.” (1999) Biochemistry 38 (12): 3785-3792.
Murphy, C. T. and Spudich, J. A. “Dictyostelium Myosin 25-50K Loop Substitutions Specifically Affect ADP Release Rates.” (1998) Biochemistry 37 (19): 6738-6744.
Special Courses
• Bioinformatics: Writing Software for Genome Research, Cold Spring Harbor Lab (2001)
• EMBO Course: Pre-Steady-State Kinetics, Max Planck Inst., Dortmund, Germany (1997)
• Physiology, Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, MA (1995)