Susan Kay Murphy
Susan Kay Murphy

Susan Kay Murphy

Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Overview

Dr. Murphy is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and serves as Chief of the Division of Reproductive Sciences. As a molecular biologist with training in human epigenetics, her research interests are largely centered around the role of epigenetic modifications in health and disease. 

Dr. Murphy has ongoing projects on gynecologic malignancies, including approaches to eradicate ovarian cancer cells that survive chemotherapy and later give rise to recurrent disease. Dr. Murphy is actively involved in many collaborative projects relating to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD).

Her lab is currently working on preconception environmental exposures in males, particularly on the impact of cannabis on the sperm epigenome and the potential heritability of these effects. They are also studying the epigenetic and health effects of in utero exposures, with primary focus on children from the Newborn Epigenetics STudy (NEST), a pregnancy cohort she co-founded who were recruited from central North Carolina between 2005 and 2011. Dr. Murphy and her colleagues continue to follow NEST children to determine relationships between prenatal exposures and later health outcomes.

Positions

Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology in the School of Medicine

2014 School of Medicine

Chief, Division of Reproductive Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the School of Medicine

2017 School of Medicine

Associate Professor in the Division of Environmental Science and Policy in the Nicholas School of the Environment

2017 Nicholas School of the Environment

Associate Professor in Pathology in the School of Medicine

2012 School of Medicine

Member of the Duke Cancer Institute in the School of Medicine

1998 School of Medicine

Education

B.A. 1992

1992 University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Ph.D. 1998

1998 Wake Forest University

Publications, Grants & Awards

Offices & Contact

701 W. Main Street
Durham, NC
27701
Duke PO Box 90534
Durham, NC
27701