JOHN R. MURPHY, Ph.D.
JOHN R. MURPHY, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Section of Biomolecular Medicine
Department of Medicine
Office: R650
Phone: 617-6386014
Electronic mail: jmurphy@medicine.bu.edu
Research Interests:
The research interests of Dr. Murphy’s group are focused in two areas: the design, expression, and characterization of diphtheria toxin-related cytokine fusion proteins, and the molecular basis of diphtheria tox gene regulation. We have recently demonstrated that the regulation of the bacteriophage encoded diphtheria toxin gene is mediated by a bacterial specific factor, DtxR. The dtxR gene has been recently cloned and sequenced. In addition, the DtxR regulatory protein has been over-expressed, purified to apparent homogeneity, and shown to bind selectively to the tox operator in the presence of iron and other divalent heavy metal ions.
Current studies are focused on the heavy metal ion activation of DtxR, interactions between DtxR and the diphtheria tox operator, and the determination of the X-ray crystal structure of this regulatory protein.
