Cheryl Murphy Ph.D.

Cheryl Murphy, Ph.D.

Contact Me

Professor; Director of the Center for PFAS Research
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife

Education:

Ph.D., Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, 2006
M.S., Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Alberta, 1998
B.S., Marine Biology, Dalhousie University, 1993

Background:

Dr. Murphy is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. She is also an affiliate for the Center for Integrative Toxicology, Center for Water Sciences, the Environmental Science and Public Policy program and the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Program. Her current research focuses on how information collected on an individual translates across higher levels of biological organization. Using fish as a model organism, she explores how changes in gene expression and the physiological processes occurring within an individual translate to behavioral changes and ecologically relevant endpoints such as reproduction and growth, how short term phenotypic changes in expressed traits alter long term genetic change and affect life history traits, and how anthropogenic influences such as contaminants and other stressors impact such relationships and affect populations or communities of fish. Much of her work is dedicated to improving the way we evaluate the toxicity of chemicals, and her research advances the Adverse Outcome Pathway Framework. Currently she founded and is directing the Center for PFAS Research, and is devising new methods to assess the toxicity of PFAS mixtures as well as facilitating research teams to address PFAS contamination issues. Please go to the Center’s website for more information: https://www.canr.msu.edu/pfas-research/.

Dr. Murphy is well-versed in various subjects such as reproductive physiology, behavior, ecology, toxicology, and modeling, and can provide links between the different disciplines. Her overall goal is to bridge laboratory work with field sampling and modeling to address issues in environmental ecotoxicology.