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Dr Mary Murphy

Biography

Prof. Mary Murphy PhD, DSc is the Professor of Regenerative Medicine and a Principle Investigator at the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. She graduated from and completed a PhD in Biochemistry at University College Cork, Ireland. Throughout a career spanning both academia and industry, she has focused on basic and translational research to promote the delivery of outcomes that can make a difference in terms of patient care and societal benefit.

Her primary research interests and motivation is the development of innovative medicines to treat major diseases using adult stem cells and she has published widely on topics such as 1) the isolation, characterization and differentiation of stem cells from adult tissues; 2) the regulation of joint development during embryogenesis and the role of stem cells in ageing and disease.

Basic research interests focus on the biology of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), whether derived from adult tissues or induced pluripotent stem cells and the development of innovative medicines and tissue engineering solutions for osteoarthritis, bone repair and prevention of vascular calcification. This research is underpinned by the concept that stem cell depletion or alteration of function contribute to the development of chronic degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis. Cellular models based on differentiation of MSCs and cartilage progenitors are used to study early changes in osteoarthritis development and tissue calcification, with the role of inflammation and epigenetics in progression of osteoarthritis also addressed.

Applied research focuses on cell manufacturing technologies including automation, robotic processes, scalable systems and novel xeno-free and defined cell expansion media with a focus on developing economically feasible automated manufacture of MSCs derived from adult tissues and induced pluripotent stem cells as for therapeutic use.

Prof Murphy has leveraged extensive funding in recent years to address basic biology and automation for production of next generation therapies such as stromal cells and their secreted extracellular veiscles derived from adult tissues or induced pluripotent stem cells. She has also published extensively in the regenerative medicine area.

Please see here for research publications. Furthermore, for details on our current research endeavours please see our research group page here.