George Murray
Education
- University of Iowa, 2016, Bachelor of Science in Biology with University Honors
Biography
George C. Murray is a PhD candidate studying diseases of the peripheral nervous system in the lab of Dr. Robert Burgess at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, ME. His bioinformatics-oriented research involves comparative and integrative analysis of data across multiple ‘omics modalities such as RNA sequencing and metabolomics to uncover predictive signatures of disease, characterize mouse models of disease, and identify therapeutic targets. George’s research also has a strong wet-lab component, which involves validation of a potential therapeutic target identified in a patient-only genome wide association study using mouse models, and mapping disease-modifying genes in genetically diverse populations of mice. Aside from research, George actively mentors undergraduate research fellows at The Jackson Laboratory and has served in several leadership roles throughout graduate school.
Dissertation Projects
George is involved in several projects: 1) Quantitative trait loci mapping of genes that modify Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) type 2D phenotypes in validated CMT mouse models and diversity outbred mice. 2) Assessment of Sipa1l2 in the C3-PMP22 mouse model as a candidate modifier and therapeutic target for CMT1A identified by patient-only GWAS. 3) Comparative analysis of gene expression datasets from numerous CMT models to develop a phylotranscriptomic tree of CMT models and identify prognostic gene expression signatures and therapeutic strategies. 4) Characterization of an allelic series of spontaneous Rorb mutant mice with a gait phenotype and retinal abnormalities. 5) Metabolomic- and gene expression-based characterization of a mouse model of NADK2 deficiency. This project has been published in Human Molecular Genetics PMID: 35796562. Together, these projects illustrate the utility of mice for therapeutic target identification, disease modeling, and validation studies – the major narrative theme of George’s dissertation.
Rotations
1. Dr. Catherine Kaczorowski – The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME. George examined hippocampi from the 5XFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and a model of traumatic brain injury for expression of TrpC3 using immunohistochemistry and fluorescence microscopy. He also used Ingenuity Pathway Analysis to assess pathway enrichment in brains of AD mouse models.
2. Dr. Robert Burgess – The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME. George helped characterize retinal abnormalities and analyze RNASeq data from a spontaneous Rorb mutant with a pronounced gait phenotype. After joining the Burgess lab, this project evolved significantly to incorporate brain-region specific RNASeq from an allelic series of spontaneous Rorb mutants.
3. Dr. Joel Graber – Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, ME. George worked to understand how the parameterization of an RNASeq alignment pipeline influenced the biological interpretability of downstream analysis.
Selected Service
2019: Student Executive Committee, Member – GSBSE, University of Maine
2020: TRIO SSS, Tutor – The University of Maine
2021: Undergraduate Summer Student, Mentor – The Jackson Laboratory
2021: Summer Student Journal Club, Leader – The Jackson Laboratory
2022: The Jackson Lab Graduate Student Organization, Co-Chair – The Jackson Laboratory
2022: Undergraduate Academic Year Fellow, Mentor – The Jackson Laboratory
2023: Undergraduate Summer Student, Mentor – The Jackson Laboratory
Publications
- G C Murray, P Bais, C L Hatton, A L D Tadenev, B R Hoffmann, T J Stodola, K H Morelli, S L Pratt, D Schroeder, R Doty, O Fiehn, S W M John, C J Bult, G A Cox, R W Burgess, Mouse models of NADK2 deficiency analyzed for metabolic and gene expression changes to elucidate pathophysiology, Human Molecular Genetics, 2022;, ddac151, https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac151
- Murray GC, Bubier JA, Zinder OJ, Harris B, Clark J, Christopher MC, Hanley C, Tjong H, Li M, Ngan CY, Reinholdt L, Burgess RW, Tadenev ALD. An allelic series of spontaneous Rorb mutant mice exhibit a gait phenotype, changes in retina morphology and behavior, and gene expression signatures associated with the unfolded protein response. G3 (Bethesda). 2023 Jun 10:jkad131. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad131. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37300435.
