Dr. Marion Murray

We are sad to report that Dr. Marion Murray, one of the most accomplished and highly respected leaders in spinal cord injury research, passed away on September 9 following complications of esophageal cancer.

At the time of her death, Marion was professor emeritus in theDepartment of Neurobiology and Anatomy at Drexel University.Marion was a founding member of the Spinal Cord Research Center at Drexel University, leading its research activities for over 30 years to create one of the most prominent centers in the United States.

The focus of Marion’s research was on neuroplasticity and its relation to recovery of function after spinal cord injury. Her early studies with her collaborator Dr. Michal Goldberger were amongst the first to report evidence that sprouting of novel connections after spinal cord injury led to the formation of functional connections. This was at a time when almost everyone in our field believed that the mature nervous system was completely incapable of any growth after injury. Her work helped to fundamentally change our understanding of how the nervous system responded to injury, leading to our current understanding that the limited growth that does occur is part of the mechanism underlying naturally-occurring recovery of function. This concept was a sea change that gave new hope -- if we could understand the mechanisms of sprouting, we might be able to harness those mechanisms to enable robust regeneration of connections in the injured spinal cord. Following from those groundbreaking studies, Marion went on to make major contributions to our understanding of the role of axonal regeneration and sprouting in functional restoration after injury and on mechanisms of neuroprotection.

Marion exemplified a scientific leader who passionately confronted significant problems for human health and then generously shared her knowledge with others. Under her leadership, the Spinal Cord ResearchCenter at Drexel established multidisciplinary research training in spinal cord injury and created a program that continues to have international impact, with influence in basic and translational neuroscience beyond her initial vision.

Dr. Murray received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin in physiology and did her postdoctoral work at McGill University in anatomy and at the Rockefeller University in neurobiology. She was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Chicago, and in 1973 moved to theMedical College of Pennsylvania, which was the predecessor of Drexel University.

Dr. Murray received numerous awards, including the NIH Javits Neurosciences Investigator Award, the Fogarty Fellowship, the MCPHU Research Achievement Award and, most recently, the Reeve-IrvineResearch Award. She served on the editorial boards of scientific journals such as ExperimentalNeurology and Journal of Comparative Neurology; on scientific review committees, including for the NIHand the VA; and as the scientific director of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.

In recognition of her lifetime of achievements and contributions, the Drexel University Center for SpinalCord Research will be dedicated and named in the memory of Marion Murray.