Elizabeth Murphy, MD, PhD

Professor

Elizabeth Murphy, MD, DPhil, is Chief of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Division, Director of the Diabetes Center for High Risk Populations and Specialty Lead of the eReferral Program at San Francisco General Hospital and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

As Chief of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Division at SFGH, Dr. Murphy's work has focused on improving access and quality of endocrinology and diabetes care for low income, diverse populations in the San Francisco safety net. As Director of the Diabetes Center for High Risk Populations, she has led the development of novel services such as medical group visits for insulin initiation in English and Spanish, low literacy insulin teaching aids for patients, medication management algorithms for primary care, and targeted outreach to SF County Jail patients. Her team’s efforts in health disparities were recognized by the American Diabetes Association’s Promising Practice Award of Excellence in 2012 and were an integral part of the Healthy San Francisco Chronic Care Redesign Program recognized by the National Association of Public Hospitals’ Safety Net Award in 2010.

Through her work as Specialty Lead of the eReferral program, Dr. Murphy has been instrumental in standardizing the role of the specialist reviewer with an emphasis on improving primary-specialty care communication. In addition she has worked with the Endocrine Society on improving the referral process as part of the ACP High Value Care Coordination Project.

Previously, Dr. Murphy served as the Chief Medical Officer of KineMed, Inc, a biotechnology company focused on the use of stable isotope technology to measure kinetic processes for drug development. There she was responsible for in vivo human studies in diverse areas including insulin resistance and diabetes, lipid metabolism, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, prostate cancer, and bile acid kinetics.

A practicing endocrinologist, Dr. Murphy received the UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital Department of Medicine Subspecialty Consultant of the Year Award in 2011, the John Karum Clinician Educator Award in 2011 for her work with UCSF endocrinology fellows and in 2015 was named a Master Clinician in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Murphy received her BA in Chemistry from Wellesley College, a D.Phil. in Biochemistry from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and MD from Harvard Medical School in the Harvard-MIT affiliated Health Sciences and Technology program. She completed her internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship training at UCSF.
Education
2021 - Diversity Equity and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
Fellowship, 2002 - Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of California, San Francisco
Internship and Residency, 1997 - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
M.D., 1994 - School of Medicine, Harvard University
DPhil, 1989 - Biochemistry, Oxford University
BA, 1986 - Chemistry, Wellesley College
Publications

  1. Roman B, Petersen CE, Sun J, Murphy E. Sex differences in mitochondrial Ca2+ during ischemia/reperfusion injury: A role for S-Nitrosylation. Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology 2026. PMID: 41722767


  2. Giles AV, Covian R, Prag HA, Burger N, Lucotte B, Yu CS, Sun J, Murphy E, Krieg T, Murphy MP, Balaban RS. Rapid mitochondrial repolarization upon reperfusion after cardiac ischemia. Nature cardiovascular research 2025. PMID: 41381906


  3. Mastoor Y, Murphy E, Roman B. Mechanisms of postischemic cardiac death and protection following myocardial injury. The Journal of clinical investigation 2025. PMID: 39744953


  5. Elezaby A, Lin AJ, Vijayan V, Pokhrel S, Kraemer BR, Bechara LRG, Larus I, Sun J, Baena V, Syed ZA, Murphy E, Glancy B, Ostberg NP, Queliconi BB, Campos JC, Ferreira JCB, Haileselassie B, Mochly-Rosen D. Cardiac troponin I directly binds and inhibits mitochondrial ATP synthase with a noncanonical role in the post-ischemic heart. Nature cardiovascular research 2024. PMID: 39196031


  6. Eisner D, Murphy E. Honey, they shrunk the ATP. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2024. PMID: 38935584


  7. Roman B, Mastoor Y, Sun J, Chapoy Villanueva H, Hinojosa G, Springer D, Liu JC, Murphy E. MICU3 Regulates Mitochondrial Calcium and Cardiac Hypertrophy. Circulation research 2024. PMID: 38747181


  8. Lai L, Sun J, Tarafdar S, Liu C, Murphy E, Kim G, Levine RL. Corrigendum to "Loss of methionine sulfoxide reductases increases resistance to oxidative stress" [Free Radic. Biol. Med. 145 (2019) 374-384]. Free radical biology & medicine 2024. PMID: 38718559


  9. Mastoor Y, Harata M, Silva K, Liu C, Combs CA, Roman B, Murphy E. Monitoring mitochondrial calcium in cardiomyocytes during coverslip hypoxia using a fluorescent lifetime indicator. Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology plus 2024. PMID: 38854449


  10. Shankaran M, Mohammed H, Tsang E, Wong PA, Protasio J, Murphy EJ, Bernard F, Chang R, Dellovade T, Turner S, Hellerstein MK. 24-hydroxycholesterol replacement rate measured in blood is a non-invasive biomarker of brain demyelination and remyelination in cuprizone-treated mice. Experimental neurology 2023. PMID: 37003487


  11. Calissano C, Damle RN, Marsilio S, Yan XJ, Yancopoulos S, Hayes G, Emson C, Murphy EJ, Hellerstein MK, Sison C, Kaufman MS, Kolitz JE, Allen SL, Rai KR, Ivanovic I, Dozmorov IM, Roa S, Scharff MD, Li W, Chiorazzi N. Correction to: Intraclonal Complexity in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Fractions Enriched in Recently Born/Divided and Older/Quiescent Cells. Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) 2022. PMID: 35291936


  12. Goletzke J, De Haene J, Stotland NE, Murphy EJ, Perez-Rodriguez M, King JC. Effect of a Low-Glycemic Load Diet Intervention on Maternal and Pregnancy Outcomes in Obese Pregnant Women. Nutrients 2021. PMID: 33652705


  14. Agarwal S, Griffith ML, Murphy EJ, Greenlee C, Boord J, Gabbay RA. Innovations in Diabetes Care for a Better "New Normal" Beyond COVID-19. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism 2021. PMID: 33205818


  15. Kim S, Conrad M, Chuang E, Cai L, Masharani U, Murphy EJ. Calcium Stimulation Test for Insulinoma Localization in an End-stage Renal Disease Patient on Diazoxide. Journal of the Endocrine Society 2020. PMID: 33381673


  16. Knox M, Murphy EJ, Leslie T, Wick R, Tuot DS. e-Consult implementation success: lessons from 5 county-based delivery systems. The American journal of managed care 2020. PMID: 31951363


  17. Albao DS, Cutiongco-de la Paz EM, Mercado ME, Lirio A, Mariano M, Kim S, Yangco A, Melegrito J, Wad-Asen K, Gauran II, Francisco MA, Santos-Acuin C, David-Padilla C, Murphy EJ, Paz-Pacheco E, Seielstad M. Methylation changes in the peripheral blood of Filipinos with type 2 diabetes suggest spurious transcription initiation at TXNIP. Human molecular genetics 2019. PMID: 31691802


  18. Ringel MD, Murphy EJ, Hammes SR. Compensation, Productivity, and Other Demographics of Academic Divisions of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. Journal of the Endocrine Society 2019. PMID: 31384713


  19. Marpadga S, Fernandez A, Leung J, Tang A, Seligman H, Murphy EJ. Challenges and Successes with Food Resource Referrals for Food-Insecure Patients with Diabetes. The Permanente journal 2019. PMID: 30939269


  20. Tuot DS, Liddy C, Vimalananda VG, Pecina J, Murphy EJ, Keely E, Simon SR, North F, Orlander JD, Chen AH. Evaluating diverse electronic consultation programs with a common framework. BMC health services research 2018. PMID: 30355346


  21. Beysen C, Ruddy M, Stoch A, Mixson L, Rosko K, Riiff T, Turner SM, Hellerstein MK, Murphy EJ. Dose-dependent quantitative effects of acute fructose administration on hepatic de novo lipogenesis in healthy humans. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism 2018. PMID: 29558206


  22. Saslow LR, Daubenmier JJ, Moskowitz JT, Kim S, Murphy EJ, Phinney SD, Ploutz-Snyder R, Goldman V, Cox RM, Mason AE, Moran P, Hecht FM. Twelve-month outcomes of a randomized trial of a moderate-carbohydrate versus very low-carbohydrate diet in overweight adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes. Nutrition & diabetes 2017. PMID: 29269731


  23. Kwok J, Olayiwola JN, Knox M, Murphy EJ, Tuot DS. Electronic consultation system demonstrates educational benefit for primary care providers. Journal of telemedicine and telecare 2017. PMID: 28614974


  24. Lee AP, Mulligan K, Schambelan M, Murphy EJ, Weiss EJ. Growth hormone receptor antagonism with pegvisomant in insulin resistant non-diabetic men: A phase II pilot study. F1000Research 2017. PMID: 28713554


  25. Kuo CR, Quan J, Kim S, Tang AH, Heuerman DP, Murphy EJ. Group visits to encourage insulin initiation: targeting patient barriers. Journal of clinical nursing 2017. PMID: 27602873


  26. Murphy EJ, Neuberg DS, Rassenti LZ, Hayes G, Redd R, Emson C, Li K, Brown JR, Wierda WG, Turner S, Greaves AW, Zent CS, Byrd JC, McConnel C, Barrientos J, Kay N, Hellerstein MK, Chiorazzi N, Kipps TJ, Rai KR. Leukemia-cell proliferation and disease progression in patients with early stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia 2017. PMID: 28115735


  27. Ratanawongsa N, Chan LL, Fouts MM, Murphy EJ. The Challenges of Electronic Health Records and Diabetes Electronic Prescribing: Implications for Safety Net Care for Diverse Populations. Journal of diabetes research 2017. PMID: 28197420


  28. Tuvdendorj D, Munoz AO, Ruiz-Barros V, Schwarz JM, Montalto G, Chandalia M, Sowers LC, Rizzo M, Murphy EJ, Abate N. In vivo triglyceride synthesis in subcutaneous adipose tissue of humans correlates with plasma HDL parameters. Atherosclerosis 2016. PMID: 27323227


  29. Marshall NE, Murphy EJ, King JC, Haas EK, Lim JY, Wiedrick J, Thornburg KL, Purnell JQ. Comparison of multiple methods to measure maternal fat mass in late gestation. The American journal of clinical nutrition 2016. PMID: 26888714


  30. Tuot DS, Leeds K, Murphy EJ, Sarkar U, Lyles CR, Mekonnen T, Chen AH. Facilitators and barriers to implementing electronic referral and/or consultation systems: a qualitative study of 16 health organizations. BMC health services research 2015. PMID: 26687507


  31. Epstein AE, Olshansky B, Naccarelli GV, Kennedy JI, Murphy EJ, Goldschlager N. Practical Management Guide for Clinicians Who Treat Patients with Amiodarone. The American journal of medicine 2015. PMID: 26497904


  32. Stern RJ, Murphy EJ. Metformin as Initial Oral Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes. JAMA 2015. PMID: 26103032


  33. Tuot DS, Murphy EJ, McCulloch CE, Leeds K, Chan E, Chen AH. Leveraging an electronic referral system to build a medical neighborhood. Healthcare (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2015. PMID: 26699344


  34. McDermott KA, Rao MR, Nagarathna R, Murphy EJ, Burke A, Nagendra RH, Hecht FM. A yoga intervention for type 2 diabetes risk reduction: a pilot randomized controlled trial. BMC complementary and alternative medicine 2014. PMID: 24980650


  35. Saslow LR, Kim S, Daubenmier JJ, Moskowitz JT, Phinney SD, Goldman V, Murphy EJ, Cox RM, Moran P, Hecht FM. A randomized pilot trial of a moderate carbohydrate diet compared to a very low carbohydrate diet in overweight or obese individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes. PloS one 2014. PMID: 24717684


  36. Tuvdendorj D, Chandalia M, Batbayar T, Saraf M, Beysen C, Murphy EJ, Abate N. Altered subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue lipid synthesis in obese, insulin-resistant humans. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism 2013. PMID: 23982159


  37. Chen AH, Murphy EJ, Yee HF. eReferral--a new model for integrated care. The New England journal of medicine 2013. PMID: 23802515


  38. Okeigwe I, Yeaton-Massey A, Kim S, Vargas JE, Murphy EJ. U-500R and aspart insulin for the treatment of severe insulin resistance in pregnancy associated with pregestational diabetes. Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association 2013. PMID: 23443293


  39. Turner S, Voogt J, Davidson M, Glass A, Killion S, Decaris J, Mohammed H, Minehira K, Boban D, Murphy E, Luchoomun J, Awada M, Neese R, Hellerstein M. Measurement of reverse cholesterol transport pathways in humans: in vivo rates of free cholesterol efflux, esterification, and excretion. Journal of the American Heart Association 2012. PMID: 23130164


  40. Hayes GM, Simko J, Holochwost D, Kuchinsky K, Busch R, Misell L, Murphy EJ, Carroll P, Chan J, Shinohara K, Hellerstein MK. Regional cell proliferation in microdissected human prostate specimens after heavy water labeling in vivo: correlation with prostate epithelial cells isolated from seminal fluid. Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 2012. PMID: 22553345


  41. Beysen C, Murphy EJ, Deines K, Chan M, Tsang E, Glass A, Turner SM, Protasio J, Riiff T, Hellerstein MK. Effect of bile acid sequestrants on glucose metabolism, hepatic de novo lipogenesis, and cholesterol and bile acid kinetics in type 2 diabetes: a randomised controlled study. Diabetologia 2011. PMID: 22134839


  42. Wilson JP, Mulligan K, Fan B, Sherman JL, Murphy EJ, Tai VW, Powers CL, Marquez L, Ruiz-Barros V, Shepherd JA. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry-based body volume measurement for 4-compartment body composition. The American journal of clinical nutrition 2011. PMID: 22134952


  43. Calissano C, Damle RN, Marsilio S, Yan XJ, Yancopoulos S, Hayes G, Emson C, Murphy EJ, Hellerstein MK, Sison C, Kaufman MS, Kolitz JE, Allen SL, Rai KR, Ivanovic I, Dozmorov IM, Roa S, Scharff MD, Li W, Chiorazzi N. Intraclonal complexity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: fractions enriched in recently born/divided and older/quiescent cells. Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) 2011. PMID: 21968788


  44. Brufau G, Stellaard F, Prado K, Bloks VW, Jonkers E, Boverhof R, Kuipers F, Murphy EJ. Improved glycemic control with colesevelam treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes is not directly associated with changes in bile acid metabolism. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 2010. PMID: 20725912


  45. Brufau G, Bahr MJ, Staels B, Claudel T, Ockenga J, Böker KH, Murphy EJ, Prado K, Stellaard F, Manns MP, Kuipers F, Tietge UJ. Plasma bile acids are not associated with energy metabolism in humans. Nutrition & metabolism 2010. PMID: 20815878


  46. Stellaard F, Bloks VW, Burgerhof HG, Scheltema RA, Murphy EJ, Romijn HA, Smelt GH, Brufau G, Kuipers F. Two time-point assessment of bile acid kinetics in humans using stable isotopes. Isotopes in environmental and health studies 2010. PMID: 20645205


  47. Sarkar U, Handley MA, Gupta R, Tang A, Murphy E, Seligman HK, Shojania KG, Schillinger D. What happens between visits? Adverse and potential adverse events among a low-income, urban, ambulatory population with diabetes. Quality & safety in health care 2010. PMID: 20378619


  48. Cheng MH, Fan U, Grewal N, Barnes M, Mehta A, Taylor S, Husebye ES, Murphy EJ, Anderson MS. Acquired autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, thymoma, and an AIRE defect. Volume 362 of Issue 8. The New England journal of medicine 2010. PMID: 20181983


  49. Hayes GM, Busch R, Voogt J, Siah IM, Gee TA, Hellerstein MK, Chiorazzi N, Rai KR, Murphy EJ. Isolation of malignant B cells from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) for analysis of cell proliferation: validation of a simplified method suitable for multi-center clinical studies. Leukemia research 2009. PMID: 19854509


  50. Calissano C, Damle RN, Hayes G, Murphy EJ, Hellerstein MK, Moreno C, Sison C, Kaufman MS, Kolitz JE, Allen SL, Rai KR, Chiorazzi N. In vivo intraclonal and interclonal kinetic heterogeneity in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood 2009. PMID: 19789386


  51. Beysen C, Murphy EJ, Nagaraja H, Decaris M, Riiff T, Fong A, Hellerstein MK, Boyle PJ. A pilot study of the effects of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone on de novo lipogenesis in type 2 diabetes. Journal of lipid research 2008. PMID: 18641372


  52. Sarkar U, Handley MA, Gupta R, Tang A, Murphy E, Seligman HK, Shojania KG, Schillinger D. Use of an interactive, telephone-based self-management support program to identify adverse events among ambulatory diabetes patients. Journal of general internal medicine 2008. PMID: 18373145


  53. Goldschlager N, Epstein AE, Naccarelli GV, Olshansky B, Singh B, Collard HR, Murphy E. A practical guide for clinicians who treat patients with amiodarone: 2007. Heart rhythm 2007. PMID: 17765636


  54. Beysen C, Murphy EJ, McLaughlin T, Riiff T, Lamendola C, Turner HC, Awada M, Turner SM, Reaven G, Hellerstein MK. Whole-body glycolysis measured by the deuterated-glucose disposal test correlates highly with insulin resistance in vivo. Diabetes care 2007. PMID: 17259480


  56. Turner SM, Roy S, Sul HS, Neese RA, Murphy EJ, Samandi W, Roohk DJ, Hellerstein MK. Dissociation between adipose tissue fluxes and lipogenic gene expression in ob/ob mice. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism 2006. PMID: 17164440


  58. Chen JL, Peacock E, Samady W, Turner SM, Neese RA, Hellerstein MK, Murphy EJ. Physiologic and pharmacologic factors influencing glyceroneogenic contribution to triacylglyceride glycerol measured by mass isotopomer distribution analysis. The Journal of biological chemistry 2005. PMID: 15888453


  59. Messmer BT, Messmer D, Allen SL, Kolitz JE, Kudalkar P, Cesar D, Murphy EJ, Koduru P, Ferrarini M, Zupo S, Cutrona G, Damle RN, Wasil T, Rai KR, Hellerstein MK, Chiorazzi N. In vivo measurements document the dynamic cellular kinetics of chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cells. The Journal of clinical investigation 2005. PMID: 15711642


  60. Turner SM, Murphy EJ, Neese RA, Antelo F, Thomas T, Agarwal A, Go C, Hellerstein MK. Measurement of TG synthesis and turnover in vivo by 2H2O incorporation into the glycerol moiety and application of MIDA. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism 2003. PMID: 12824084


  61. Murphy EJ, Davern TJ, Shakil AO, Shick L, Masharani U, Chow H, Freise C, Lee WM, Bass NM. Troglitazone-induced fulminant hepatic failure. Acute Liver Failure Study Group. Digestive diseases and sciences 2000. PMID: 10749332


  62. Murphy EJ. Doctor discontent. The New England journal of medicine 1999. PMID: 10049079


  63. Murphy EJ, Bates TE, Williams SR, Watson T, Brindle KM, Rajagopalan B, Radda GK. Endoplasmic reticulum: the major contributor to the PDE peak in hepatic 31P-NMR spectra at low magnetic field strengths. Biochimica et biophysica acta 1992. PMID: 1390864


  64. Murphy EJ, Brindle KM, Rorison CJ, Dixon RM, Rajagopalan B, Radda GK. Changes in phosphatidylethanolamine metabolism in regenerating rat liver as measured by 31P-NMR. Biochimica et biophysica acta 1992. PMID: 1591270


  65. Murphy EJ, Rajagopalan B, Brindle KM, Radda GK. Phospholipid bilayer contribution to 31P NMR spectra in vivo. Magnetic resonance in medicine 1989. PMID: 2559292


  66. Kolodny NH, Gragoudas ES, D'Amico DJ, Seddon JM, Minichiello M, Murphy EJ, Albert DM. Preliminary results on phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance evaluation of human uveal melanoma in enucleated eyes. Ophthalmology 1988. PMID: 3174026


  67. Kolodny NH, Gragoudas ES, D'Amico DJ, Kohler SJ, Seddon JM, Murphy EJ, Yun C, Albert DM. Proton and sodium 23 magnetic resonance imaging of human ocular tissues. A model study. Archives of ophthalmology (Chicago, Ill. : 1960) 1987. PMID: 2823760


  68. Richards TL, Keniry MA, Weinstein PR, Pereira BM, Andrews BT, Murphy EJ, James TL. Measurement of lactate accumulation by in vivo proton NMR spectroscopy during global cerebral ischemia in rats. Magnetic resonance in medicine 1987. PMID: 3683164