Joanne Murphy-Ullrich, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, recently received a patent coin to honor her hard work and dedication as a UAB inventor. The patent coin recognition program is led by the UAB Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Beginning this past spring, UAB researchers who are named on a full patent will receive a ceremonial coin stamped with their name and patent number.
“I’d recommend the patent process to any of my fellow colleagues. It’s a very cool way to see your research become real,” said Murphy-Ullrich.
Murphy-Ullrich, a prolific researcher, has been issued eight patents over the course of her career. She had a hand in several significant discoveries, including the identification of a cellular de-adhesive role for matricellular extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. The Murphy-Ullrich lab also discovered the role of the endoplasmic reticulum and calcium regulatory protein, calreticulin, in regulation of TGF-β transcriptional stimulation of ECM proteins and in regulation of collagen processing.
From 1997 to 2000, she was named an Established Investigator Genentech Special Awardee by the American Heart Association. She has received continuous funding from various grant agencies since 1988, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Arthritis Foundation, Breakthrough T1D, the Eyesight Foundation of Alabama and the American Society of Hematology. She maintains a Scopus H-index of 65, and her work has been cited more than 14,000 times.
Murphy-Ullrich, who retired after 37 years with the UAB Department of Pathology, has been a transformative educator and mentor at UAB. Within the UAB Graduate School, she served as a mentor to 14 Ph.D. and M.S. students and 12 postdoctoral trainees, as well as serving on 84 Ph.D. committees.