Matthew D. Barber, MD, MHS, Chair of Duke Ob/Gyn, recently announced the creation of the Division of Reproductive Sciences, and the appointment of Susan Murphy, PhD, as Chief of the new Division.
The purpose of this Division will be to develop and translate scientific discoveries to improve the reproductive health of women and their families, and to develop and mentor students, scientists and clinician-scientists dedicated to research in the reproductive sciences.
The Division will serve as the home for the Department’s basic and translational researchers and represents a consolidation and restructuring of the former Divisions of Reproductive Biology and Clinical Epidemiology.
Dr. Murphy is Associate Professor in the Department Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment. She is an internationally recognized and highly accomplished reproductive scientist whose research has focused on the developmental origins on health and disease, in particular the role of epigenetics in development of gynecologic malignancies, and the impact of environmental exposures on childhood development.
Dr. Murphy co-founded the Newborn Epigenetics STudy (NEST) at Duke in 2005, which enrolled 2000 mother-baby pairs and has provided for a wellspring of related NIH-funded studies, helping to launch the careers of postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty.
Among many other accomplishments, she also serves as Program Director of the NICHES Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Duke. Other Ob/Gyn faculty with primary appointments in the new Division of Reproductive Sciences include Liping Feng MD; Friederike Jayes, DVM, PhD; and Evan Myers MD, MPH.