Helene R. McMurray

Helene R. McMurray, Ph.D. serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is co-director of the Tissue Typing / Histocompatibility Laboratory, which provides state-of-the-art compatibility testing for solid organ and stem cell transplantation services. Dr. McMurray is board certified by the American College of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ACHI) and holds a NYS Certificate of Qualification in Histocompatibility.

Dr. McMurray's research spans multiple domains including clinical laboratory testing in immunogenetics, cancer biology research, and graduate education. Her laboratory focuses on gene regulatory networks underlying malignant cell transformation, particularly studying 'cooperation response genes' (CRGs) discovered through her work with Dr. Hartmut Land. She collaborates extensively with researchers in cancer genomics, bioinformatics, and histocompatibility testing.

• Board-certified Fellow of the American College of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (F(ACHI))
• Active member of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
• Accredited laboratory serving active renal, pancreas and cardiac transplant programs

Her research publications demonstrate expertise in applying genomics and systems biological approaches to identify critical differences in the gene regulatory architecture of primary and metastatic cancer cells. The work focuses on molecules controlling tumor formation capacity, with applications across multiple human cancers.

Dr. McMurray has received numerous awards including the Award for Outstanding CP Didactics Presentation (2021), Career Development Award in Medical Informatics (2017), and the Wilson A. Stone Memorial Award (2008), among others.

As an educator, she serves as program director for the PhD in Pathology and teaches multiple graduate courses including Foundations in Modern Biology II, Cancer Biology, Genomics and Systems Biology, and Introduction to Quantitative Biology. She mentors students in the Cell Biology of Disease, Genetics, Development and Stem Cells (GDSC), and Translational Biomedical Sciences (TBS) PhD programs.