Professor John Murphy

My research interests have included the identification and characterisation of novel early response genes, immune dysfunctions in autoimmune diseases and research into molecular mechanisms of blood and other cancers. Molecular and cellular biology experimental strategies including gene cloning, RNAi, CRISPR, RNASeq underpin much of this research. Current research is focussed mainly in using these approaches in characterising novel cancer vulnerabilities which may lead to identifying novel therapeutic targets for different cancers where there are unmet clinical needs.

I completed a BSc degree in Pharmacology at University College Dublin. I went on to complete a PhD degree and undertake two post-doctoral researcher positions before securing an academic position at King’s College London in 1991. I was appointed as a Reader at the University of Westminster in 2010. From 2014 to 2018, I was Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Westminster. I co-lead the Medicines Diagnostics and Disease Modelling Research Group and the Genome Engineering Laboratory in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Westminster.

Qualifications:

BSc Pharmacology

PhD Pharmacology

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB)

Current research is focussed on two main research interests;

Functional analysis of the B leukaemia cell-derived early response gene Berg36 (ZFP36L1) in B cells.

We (in collaboration with Prof. J. Norton, University of Essex) originally identified and isolated Berg36 as an early response gene from chronic lymphocytic leukaemia B cells as part of a project focusing on functional characterization of novel B-cell-derived early response genes. This work was supported by a number of UK Medical Research Council grants (MRC grant nos. G8926773, G9209876CA, G9622834). Berg36 (ZFP36L1) is a zinc finger-containing post-transcriptional regulator protein that targets mRNAs, containing AUUUA sequences in their 3'untranslated region, for degradation. It is a member of a small family of post-transcriptional proteins that also includes ZFP36 and ZFP36L2. We obtained additional funding (Leukaemia Research fund) to study the "in vivo" role of Berg36 by generating Berg36 knockout mice in collaboration with Dr. Martin Turner (The Babraham Institute, Cambridge). We have reported roles for Berg36 in apoptosis regulation of human leukaemia and lymphoma B cells. We recently reported that ZFP36L1 negatively regulates cytokine-induced plasmacytoid differentiation of BCL1 mouse leukaemia cells by targeting Blimp1 mRNA. Current research is focused on further analysis of roles for ZFP36 family proteins in normal and malignant B cells.

Functional analysis of the B leukaemia cell-derived early response gene 19A (SlamF7, CRACC, CS1) gene in B cells.

We were first to report the isolation and partial DNA sequence of the B-cell-derived early response gene 19A (SlamF7, CRACC, CS1) in 1990 (in collaboration with Prof. J. Norton, University of Essex) and its full open reading frame in 2000 (Genbank accession numbers AJ271869 and AJ276429). In a further publication we reported on the structure of 19A protein and provided evidence that it functioned in homotypic adhesion interactions in B cells. Current research is focused on further investigating its role(s) in normal and malignant B cells.

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.