Susan K. Murphy, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Reproductive Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Murphy has secondary faculty appointments in the Department of Pathology and in the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment, Division of Environmental Science and Policy.

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.

Visit Dr. Murphy's personal site here.

• Hedges, Jason C., Carol B. Hanna, Lyndsey E. Shorey-Kendrick, Emily R. Boniface, Jasper C. Bash, Travis L. Rice-Stitt, Fernanda C. Burch, et al. “Cessation of chronic delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol use partially reverses impacts on male fertility and the sperm epigenome in rhesus macaques.” Fertil Steril 120, no. 1 (July 2023): 163–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.02.034.

• Lin, Yan, Emily Craig, Xiaodong Liu, Yihui Ge, Jessica Brunner, Xiangtian Wang, Zhenchun Yang, et al. “Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene in pregnant women in a Northeastern U.S. city: socioeconomic disparity and contributions from air pollution sources.” J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol, May 9, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00555-9.

• Sosnowski, David W., Alejandra Ellison-Barnes, Joan Kaufman, Cathrine Hoyo, Susan K. Murphy, Raquel G. Hernandez, Joddy Marchesoni, Lauren M. Klein, and Sara B. Johnson. “Correction: Financial stress as a mediator of the association between maternal childhood adversity and infant birth weight, gestational age, and NICU admission.” Bmc Public Health 23, no. 1 (May 5, 2023): 831. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15783-9.

• Fuemmeler, Bernard F., Trevin E. Glasgow, Julia C. Schechter, Rachel Maguire, Yaou Sheng, Tatyana Bidopia, D Jeremy Barsell, et al. “Prenatal and Childhood Smoke Exposure Associations with Cognition, Language, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.” J Pediatr 256 (May 2023): 77-84.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.11.041.

• Lo, Jamie O., Rahul J. D’Mello, Lester Watch, Danny J. Schust, and Susan K. Murphy. “An epigenetic synopsis of parental substance use.” Epigenomics 15, no. 7 (April 2023): 453–73. https://doi.org/10.2217/epi-2023-0064.

• Sosnowski, David W., Alejandra Ellison-Barnes, Joan Kaufman, Cathrine Hoyo, Susan K. Murphy, Raquel G. Hernandez, Joddy Marchesoni, Lauren M. Klein, and Sara B. Johnson. “Financial stress as a mediator of the association between maternal childhood adversity and infant birth weight, gestational age, and NICU admission.” Bmc Public Health 23, no. 1 (March 30, 2023): 606. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15495-0.

• “Correction to: Tobacco Retail Outlets, Neighborhood Deprivation and the Risk of Prenatal Smoke Exposure.” Nicotine Tob Res 25, no. 4 (March 22, 2023): 846. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntac217.

• Crute, Christine E., Chelsea D. Landon, Angela Garner, Samantha M. Hall, Jeffery I. Everitt, Sharon Zhang, Bevin Blake, et al. “Maternal exposure to perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) during pregnancy: evidence of adverse maternal and fetoplacental effects in New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits.” Toxicol Sci 191, no. 2 (February 17, 2023): 239–52. https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfac126.

• King, Dillon E., Anna Clare Sparling, Dillon Lloyd, Matthew Joseph Satusky, Mackenzie Martinez, Carole Grenier, Christina Michelle Bergemann, et al. “Sex-specific DNA methylation and associations with in utero tobacco smoke exposure at nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes.” Epigenetics 17, no. 12 (December 2022): 1573–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2022.2043591.

• Ceasrine, Alexis M., Benjamin A. Devlin, Jessica L. Bolton, Lauren A. Green, Young Chan Jo, Carolyn Huynh, Bailey Patrick, et al. “Maternal diet disrupts the placenta-brain axis in a sex-specific manner.” Nat Metab 4, no. 12 (December 2022): 1732–45. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00693-8.

Doctoral Students

Emma Dolan, PhD Candidate, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology (co-mentor Donald McDonnell)

Reshma Nargund, PhD Candidate, Environment (co-mentor William Pan)

Karina Cuevas-Mora, (rotation) Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program, BIOCORE

Guru Ulaganathan, Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program, Environment
 

Undergraduate Students

Manasvi Reddy, Public Policy
 

Staff

Carole Grenier, Laboratory Research Analyst

CIPHERS

The Cannabis-Induced Potential Heritability of Epigenetic Revisions in Sperm (CIPHERS) Project at Duke University seeks to explore epigenetic changes in the sperm of both men that used cannabis and rats exposed to THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound in cannabis).