William J. Murphy, Ph.D.

William J. Murphy spent his postdoctoral years and early career at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Frederick, Maryland. After 12 years, and becoming director of basic research at NCI-Frederick in Maryland, he then joined the faculty at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno (UNR) where he later became chair of the department of microbiology and immunology.

In 2008, Murphy moved his laboratory to the UC Davis School of Medicine, accepting a position as professor and vice chair of research in the departments of dermatology and internal medicine, division of hematology oncology. He became interim chair of the Department of Dermatology from 2012-2016. In 2018, he became a Distinguished Professor at UC Davis.

Murphy’s laboratory investigates multiple aspects of cancer immunology and melanoma immunotherapy. Current projects focus on improving the efficacy and safety of cellular engraftment therapies by enhancing engraftment success while reducing the duration of patient immunosuppression. The laboratory also studies the mechanisms by which the immune system is activated following systemic administration of immunotherapies.

Murphy's research is supported by multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grants and funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), with a particular emphasis on stem cell engraftment.

Murphy has more than 250 publications in cancer immunology/immunotherapy over his 30-year career, has had continuous National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding over the years and is active on multiple NIH and Department of Defense study sections.

Title(s)
Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair of Research, Department of Dermatology
Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Internal Medicine Division of Malignant Hematology/Cell Therapy, Transplantation

Undergraduate Education
Rutgers University, New Brunswick in New Jersey, B.S., 1984

Graduate Education
University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas, Ph.D., 1989

Khuat LT, Vick LV, Dunai C, Collins CP, More SK, Le CT, Pai C-CS, Stoffel KM, Maverakis E, Canter RJ, Monjazeb AM, Longo DL, Abedi M, Choi E, Blazar BR, Dave M, Murphy WJ. Increased efficacy of dual pro-inflammatory cytokine blockade on acute graft-versus-host disease while maintaining graft-versus-tumor effects. Blood. 2021.

Khuat LT, Le CT, Pai CS, Shields-Cutler RR, Holtan SG, Rashidi A, Parker SL, Knights D, Luna JI, Dunai C, Wang Z, Sturgill IR, Stoffel KM, Merleev AA, More SK, Maverakis E, Raybould HE, Chen M, Canter RJ, Monjazeb AM, Dave M, Ferrara JLM, Levine JE, Longo DL, Abedi M, Blazar BR, Murphy WJ. Obesity induces gut microbiota alterations and augments acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Sci Transl Med. 2020 Nov 25;12(571):eaay7713.  

Blazar BR, Hill GR, Murphy WJ. Dissecting the biology of allogeneic HSCT to enhance the GvT effect whilst minimizing GvHD. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2020 Aug;17(8):475-492. 

Judge SJ, Dunai C, Aguilar EG, Vick SC, Sturgill IR, Khuat LT, Stoffel KM, Van Dyke J, Longo DL, Darrow MA, Anderson SK, Blazar BR, Monjazeb AM, Serody JS, Canter RJ, Murphy WJ. Minimal PD-1 expression in mouse and human NK cells under diverse conditions. J Clin Invest. 2020 Jun 1;130(6):3051-3068.  

Murphy WJ, Longo DL. The Surprisingly Positive Association Between Obesity and Cancer Immunotherapy Efficacy. JAMA. 2019 Apr 2;321(13):1247-1248.  

Wang Z, Aguilar EG, Luna JI, Dunai C, Khuat LT, Le CT, Mirsoian A, Minnar CM, Stoffel KM, Sturgill IR, Grossenbacher SK, Withers SS, Rebhun RB, Hartigan-O'Connor DJ, Méndez-Lagares G, Tarantal AF, Isseroff RR, Griffith TS, Schalper KA, Merleev A, Saha A, Maverakis E, Kelly K, Aljumaily R, Ibrahimi S, Mukherjee S, Machiorlatti M, Vesely SK, Longo DL, Blazar BR, Canter RJ, Murphy WJ, Monjazeb AM. Paradoxical effects of obesity on T cell function during tumor progression and PD-1 checkpoint blockade. Nat Med. 2019 Jan;25(1):141-151.

Dunai C, Murphy WJ. NK cells for PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy: pinning down the NK cell. J Clin Invest. 2018 Oct 1;128(10):4251-4253.  

Murphy WJ. Making a Better Hematopoietic Stem Cell - Timing Is Everything. N Engl J Med. 2018 Jan 4;378(1):89-91.  

Alvarez M, Sun K, Murphy WJ. Mouse host unlicensed NK cells promote donor allogeneic bone marrow engraftment. Blood. 2016 Mar 3;127(9):1202-5.  

Sckisel GD, Bouchlaka MN, Monjazeb AM, Crittenden M, Curti BD, Wilkins DE, Alderson KA, Sungur CM, Ames E, Mirsoian A, Reddy A, Alexander W, Soulika A, Blazar BR, Longo DL, Wiltrout RH, Murphy WJ. Out-of-Sequence Signal 3 Paralyzes Primary CD4(+) T-Cell-Dependent Immunity. Immunity. 2015 Aug 18;43(2):240-50.

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