William J. Murphy

The research questions Dr. Murphy’s lab investigates are about the evolution of mammalian species, their genomes, and the genetic architecture that underlies their phenotypic diversity. His laboratory integrates knowledge of genome organization with phylogenetic methods to resolve evolutionary relationships across the mammal family tree. Murphy’s contributions include establishing the phylogenetic framework for mammalian comparative genomics that aided in interpreting the human genome. Within this framework, his lab answered fundamental questions about how chromosomes break and evolve, when and how pivotal events in Earth's history influenced the diversification of placental mammals, and the impacts of hybridization on evolutionary inference and adaptation. Murphy has focused most of his career on developing and applying comparative genomic resources for the cat family Felidae to advance basic and biomedical science research in genetic disease, trait mapping, and wildlife conservation.