Creighton Faculty Honored As One of Top Irish-American Life Scientists

Richard F."Barry" Murphy, Ph.D., was selected to receive an award as one of the Top 15 Irish-American Life Scientists of the Year by Enterprise Ireland, BioLink USA-Ireland and Irish America Magazine. Murphy is chair of the Biomedical Sciences Department at Creighton University and holder of the Peekie Nash Carpenter Endowed Chair in Medicine.

Murphy has been engaged in research on proteins and polypeptide hormones for the past four decades in Ireland and the U.S. A graduate in biochemistry and chemistry at University College, Cork, Ireland, he received his doctorate at University College, Galway, Ireland. As head of Biochemistry at Queen’s University of Belfast, Murphy merged his research on isolation of regulatory peptides of the gastrointestinal tract with his work on combination chemotherapy of breast cancer to study the effects of polypeptide hormones on cancer growth.

Murphy joined Creighton University in 1988 and merged the Departments of Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy into the Department of Biomedical Sciences, of which he serves as chair. His work at Creighton has included the development of derivatives of the hormone GnRH which directly suppresses the growth of breast cancers and the finding of a binding site on colonic cancers.

Murphy served as program officer of the Cork Scientific Council, chairman of the Irish Area Section of the Biochemical Society, and member of the Industrial Group of the Society. He was an academic consultant to various universities, including the National University of Ireland and the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board. He served on the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Nebraska Science and Technology Planning and on the Executive Committee of the State EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate competitive Research) Program.

This is the inaugural year of the Irish America Top 15 Life Science Awards, which recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the Life Sciences. The awards will be presented at the June 16-17 International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference in Boston.

Other top scientists being honored include Bert O’Malley, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas; Tommy Thompson, former secretary of Health and Human Services; Lester Crawford, Ph.D., commissioner of the Food and Drug Association; and James Lenehan, former worldwide chairman of Johnson & Johnson. All honorees are featured in the June/July issue of Irish America magazine.

Enterprise Ireland is the government organization charged with assisting the development of Irish enterprise. BioLink USA-Ireland is an educational networking organization responsible for connecting and fostering relationships between life scientists in the U.S. and Ireland.