Kidney Transplant Specialist Dr. Barbara Murphy Dies at 56

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A leading nephrologist specializing in advanced research focused on predicting and diagnosing kidney transplant outcomes, Dr. Barbara Murphy died Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where she has worked since 1997. He was 56 years old.

Her husband, Peter Fogarty, said the cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Dr. Since 2012, Murphy has combined his passion for research into kidney transplant immunology with his role as head of the medical division at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the broader health system. She was the first woman to head the medical department at an academic medical center in New York.

Icahn School dean Dr. “They talk about five-team players in baseball,” Dennis S. Charney said over the phone. “I don’t know how many agents he had, but he was a very strong manager, a great researcher, and a great mentor to a lot of people.”

Irish Dr. Murphy developed his interest in kidney transplant while attending medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. He was particularly drawn to the topic of how surgery has changed patients’ lives.

“I love seeing how well patients do afterwards” He told Irish America magazine in 2016. “For all my years in this profession, the interaction between a living donor and a recipient in the recovery room makes me proud to still be a doctor and to play a role in such a life-affirming moment.”

After being admitted to Mount Sinai in 1997, she joined other researchers studying the role of HIV in kidney disease and helped determine the viability of kidney transplants for patients with HIV. as if there was a “moral hierarchy when it comes to donor kidneys”.

“Two weeks ago we received an email from one of our patients thanking us on the 15th birthday of his kidney transplant,” he added.

More recently, Dr. Murphy’s research in the Mount Sinai lab focused on the genetics and genomics of predicting transplant outcomes and why some kidneys are rejected.

In findings reported in The Lancet in 2016, he and his collaborators said they have identified a set of 13 genes that predict which patients will later develop fibrosis, the hallmark of chronic kidney disease, and ultimately irreversible damage to the transplanted organ. They wrote that being able to predict which patients are at risk, they would allow treatment to prevent fibrosis.

His research is licensed to two companies. First, Donor DX, which is in validation trials prior to commercial sales, is developing RNA signature tests to determine how a patient responds to and will respond to a transplant. The other company, Renalytix, uses an artificial intelligence-driven algorithm to determine the kidney disease risk score for patients. Dr. Murphy has served on the boards of directors of both companies.

“Barbara was the foundation of the Transmitter,” Sara Barrington, the company’s CEO, said over the phone. “His lab will continue to deliver new discoveries from his basic research,” he added.

Barbara Therese Murphy was born on 15 October 1964 in South Dublin. Her father, John, owned an air freight company, and her mother, Anne (Duffy) Murphy, worked with her and also designed wedding dresses.

At the age of 4, he had to overcome the harsh judgment of a teacher.

Dr. “My primary school teacher told my mom I was stupid and that I would never be anything, and moreover, she shouldn’t try,” Murphy said at a 2016 Irish America-sponsored health awards dinner. “Fortunately, my family persevered.”

After earning his medical degree from Royal College in 1989, he completed his residency and fellowship in nephrology, also at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. He was also a nephrologist in the kidney department of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he studied transplant immunology.

Dr. Murphy, then chief of the nephrology division, Dr. He was recruited to Mount Sinai by Paul Klotman as director of transplant nephrology. After becoming head of Icahn’s medical division in 2003, he promoted him to his former position.

“It showed so much promise in transplant nephrology that was emerging at the time” Dr., now president of the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, said over the phone. “Over the years he has developed good leadership skills: He was very organized and task oriented.”

In the spring of 2020, Dr. Murphy, like other doctors, realized with alarm that Covid-19 was much more than a respiratory disease. It was causing an increase in kidney failure, leading to shortages of machinery, supplies, and personnel needed for emergency dialysis.

The number of patients who need dialysis is “much higher than the number of patients we normally receive dialysis”. He told The New York Times.

One of Mount Sinai’s responses to the pandemic was that May’s Post-Covid Care Centerfor patients recovering from the virus. At that time, Mount Sinai had treated more than 8,000 patients diagnosed with Covid-19.

Dr. “Barbara was instrumental in creating the center and was involved in follow-up as it relates to kidney disease caused by Covid,” Charney said.

Dr. Murphy was awarded the Young Investigator in Basic Sciences Award by the American Transplant Association in 2003 and was named nephrologist of the year by the American Kidney Fund in 2011. he was the elected president From the American Society of Nephrology.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by their son Gavin; His brother, cardiologist working in the field of occupational health, Dr. Celine Murphy; His brother, an interventional neuroradiologist, Dr. Kieran Murphy; and their parents.

Dr. While still in medical school, Murphy said he learned an indelible lesson about the need for a strong patient-doctor relationship.

“The scholarship alone was not enough,” said Ireland at the America awards ceremony. “An example: If we had a patient with rheumatoid arthritis and we shook their hands and they grimaced, no matter how much we knew about the disease or how to treat it, we would have failed our exam because we didn’t know. takes into account the general health of the patient.”

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