Melissa E. Murray (neuropathologist)

Last updated
Melissa E. Murray
Alma materMayo Clinic, Mayo Graduate School, College of Medicine
Scientific career
Thesis Cerebral white matter hyperintensities : a synthesis of their clinico-radiologic and neuropathologic correlates in the non-demented elderly  (2010)

Melissa E. Murray is an American translational neuropathologist and Professor of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic Florida.

Contents

Education and career

Murray graduated from the University of North Florida in 2002. She completed her Ph.D. at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine [1] in 2010, where she studied the aging brain outside the context of neurodegeneration. [2] After completing her Ph.D., Murray began her postdoctoral fellowship at Mayo Clinic with a focus on neuropathology, neuroimaging, and genetics. She was promoted to assistant professor of neuroscience in 2013, with a promotion to full professor in 2023. [3]

Research

Murray specializes in the study of neurodegeneration, particularly relating to Alzheimer's disease and related dementias with an emphasis on young-onset Alzheimer's disease. Her research uses digital pathology to quantify disease severity and brain health in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. She first became interested in researching dementia and Alzheimer's after her grandmother was diagnosed with dementia. [4]

She designed an algorithm to subtype Alzheimer's disease based on topographic distribution of tangles, leading to the uncovering of neuropathologic influence on syndromic heterogeneity. [5] She has demonstrated how research-based clinical cutpoints of amyloid-PET imaging corresponded to underlying neuropathology, [6] and used digital pathology as a deep phenotyping approach to reveal novel protein-coding genes implicated in selective vulnerability observed in Alzheimer's disease. [7] Her work on relationship between plasma phosphorylated tau (p-tau) levels and Alzheimer's disease biomarker changes showed that global neuropathologic scales of tau and amyloid-β, as well as the vulnerability of the locus coeruleus, were associated with plasma p-tau levels. [8] [9] Her research is of interest to the broader public because she has shown that Alzheimer diagnoses in men are missed more often than in women [1] [10] and has connected dreams with later diagnoses of dementia. [11]

Selected publications

Honors and awards

In 2016, Murray received the Alzheimer's Association de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging award [12] [13] and was named New Investigator of 2016. In 2022 she was awarded the Mayo Clinic Florida Investigator of the Year in 2022. [14]

References

  1. 1 2 Patton, Charlie. "Mayo Clinic study finds men with Alzheimer's are misdiagnosed more often than women". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  2. Murray, Melissa E. (2010). "Cerebral white matter hyperintensities : a synthesis of their clinico-radiologic and neuropathologic correlates in the non-demented elderly". WorldCat. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  3. "Melissa E. Murray". orcid.org. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  4. Ledger, Katie (2018-12-31). "Patients who make research happen". Port Charlotte Sun. pp. SEB1, . Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  5. Murray, Melissa E; Graff-Radford, Neill R; Ross, Owen A; Petersen, Ronald C; Duara, Ranjan; Dickson, Dennis W (September 2011). "Neuropathologically defined subtypes of Alzheimer's disease with distinct clinical characteristics: a retrospective study". The Lancet Neurology. 10 (9): 785–796. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(11)70156-9. PMC   3175379 . PMID   21802369.
  6. Murray, Melissa E.; Lowe, Val J.; Graff-Radford, Neill R.; Liesinger, Amanda M.; Cannon, Ashley; Przybelski, Scott A.; Rawal, Bhupendra; Parisi, Joseph E.; Petersen, Ronald C.; Kantarci, Kejal; Ross, Owen A.; Duara, Ranjan; Knopman, David S.; Jack, Clifford R.; Dickson, Dennis W. (May 2015). "Clinicopathologic and 11 C-Pittsburgh compound B implications of Thal amyloid phase across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum". Brain. 138 (5): 1370–1381. doi:10.1093/brain/awv050. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   4407190 . PMID   25805643.
  7. Crist, Angela M.; Hinkle, Kelly M.; Wang, Xue; Moloney, Christina M.; Matchett, Billie J.; Labuzan, Sydney A.; Frankenhauser, Isabelle; Azu, Nkem O.; Liesinger, Amanda M.; Lesser, Elizabeth R.; Serie, Daniel J.; Quicksall, Zachary S.; Patel, Tulsi A.; Carnwath, Troy P.; DeTure, Michael (2021-04-19). "Transcriptomic analysis to identify genes associated with selective hippocampal vulnerability in Alzheimer's disease". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 2311. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12.2311C. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22399-3. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   8055900 . PMID   33875655.
  8. Murray, Melissa E.; Moloney, Christina M.; Kouri, Naomi; Syrjanen, Jeremy A.; Matchett, Billie J.; Rothberg, Darren M.; Tranovich, Jessica F.; Sirmans, Tiffany N. Hicks; Wiste, Heather J.; Boon, Baayla D. C.; Nguyen, Aivi T.; Reichard, R. Ross; Dickson, Dennis W.; Lowe, Val J.; Dage, Jeffrey L. (2022-12-27). "Global neuropathologic severity of Alzheimer's disease and locus coeruleus vulnerability influences plasma phosphorylated tau levels". Molecular Neurodegeneration. 17 (1): 85. doi: 10.1186/s13024-022-00578-0 . ISSN   1750-1326. PMC   9795667 . PMID   36575455.
  9. De Widt, Lynda (19 May 2024). "Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a series of brain changes characterized by unique clinical features and immune cell". Morning Sentinel ; Waterville, Maine.
  10. Bahrampour, Tara (2016-11-06). "Men may get Alzheimer's as often as women, we just haven't known how to spot it". The Daily Nonpareil. p. 49. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  11. Hall, Melanie (2013-03-22). "Dreams can be a sign of dementia 30 years later". The Daily Telegraph. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  12. "ISTAART Neuroimaging PIA de Leon Award Winners" (PDF). Alzheimer's Association. 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  13. "Melissa Murray". The Pathologist. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  14. Tommavongsa, Nicky (2022-12-16). "Melissa Murray, Ph.D., receives Mayo Clinic's 2022 Florida Investigator of the Year award". Mayo Clinic Alumni Association. Retrieved 2024-12-23.