Richard Murray

Assistant Professor
Biology Department
Hendrix College
1600 Washington Avenue
Conway, AR 72032
Phone:  (501) 450-4588
Fax:  (501) 450-4547
Email: murrayr@hendrix.edu

 The mammalian nervous system is an astonishingly complex tissue consisting of over 100 million neurons, each of which can make up to 1000 synaptic contacts with other cells. To form the proper neural circuits required for a functional nervous system, the right number and the right type of neurons have to be generated in a highly coordinated fashion. Both environmental signals, such as secreted growth factors, and intrinsic signals, such as specific transcription factors, have been shown to be involved in regulating the coordinated generation of neurons. My research interests involve understanding how extracellular growth factors and intrinsic patterns of transcription factor expression regulate neuronal progenitor cells in order to generate proper numbers and types of neurons during mammalian nervous system development.

Selected Publications:

Murray, R. C., Navi, D., Fesenko, J., Lander, A. D., and Calof, A. L. (2003). Widespread defects in the primary olfactory pathway caused by loss of Mash1 function. J. Neurosci. Vol. 23, pp. 1769-1780.

Wu, H. -H., Ivkovic, S., Murray, R. C., Jaramillo, S., Lyons, K. M., Johnson, J. E., and Calof, A. L. (2003). Autoregulation of neurogenesis by GDF11. Neuron Vol. 37, pp. 197-207.

Calof, A. L., Bonnin, A., Crocker, C., Kawauchi, S., Murray, R. C., Shou, J., and Wu, H.-H. (2002). Progenitor cells of the olfactory receptor neuron lineage. Microsc. Res. Tech. Vol. 58, pp. 176-188.

Shou, J., Murray, R. C., Rim, P. C., and Calof, A. L. (2000). opposing effects of bone morphogenetic proteins on neuron production and survival in the olfactory receptor neuron lineage. Development Vol. 127, pp. 5403-5413.

Murray, R. C., and Calof, A. L. (1999). Neuronal Regeneration: Lessons from the olfactory system. Sem. Cell. Dev. Biol. Vol. 10, pp. 421-431.