Kenan C Murphy

Dr. Kenan C. Murphy, Assistant Professor at UMass Chan Medical School, specializes in bacterial genetics and recombineering technology development. His research focuses on DNA mismatch repair mechanisms in Mycobacterium smegmatis, recombineering applications for gene replacement in pathogens, and M. tuberculosis drug discovery. He holds appointments across three institutional units: Microbiology department in T.H. Chan School of Medicine, Immunology and Microbiology Program in Morningside Graduate School, and Bacterial Genetics and Pathogenesis institute.

• Education: BA in Physics (Catholic University) and PhD in Biochemistry (University of Maryland, 1983)

His laboratory pioneered lambda Red recombineering for E. coli and expanded it to M. tuberculosis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Key research areas include:

• Mechanistic studies of Bet protein and lambda exonuclease interactions
• Clinically relevant SNP introduction in tuberculosis strains
• Phase variation in mycobacterial pathogenesis

Publications show strong emphasis on tuberculosis (8 papers), recombination systems (5 papers), and antibiotic resistance (4 papers). Collaborators include Christopher Sassetti and Martin Marinus. The lab maintains a dedicated website at umassmed.edu/maps/research-labs/murphy and provides training opportunities in bacterial pathogenesis and DNA repair.