Roderick Murray, M.D. (1910-1980)
Dr. Roderick Murray Portrait in Building 29 National Library of Medicine
He recruited Dr. Samuel Baron, one of the leading virologists of that era and a polio expert, to DBS to help sort out the aftermath of the Cutter polio incident. He worked with Drs. Kirschstein, Baron, and Van Hoosier on the live attenuated poliovirus vaccine. Did studies with Rhesus monkeys (from The Record article February 1960).
When DBS became administratively part of the FDA in 1972, Dr. Murray was appointed special assistant to the Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He requested this transfer himself, wanting to stay within NIH. He was also in poor health at this point and had been relying on Dr. Kirschstein to make decisions for many products under review by DBS, in addition to helping him with his administrative duties.
He was the author or coauthor of more than 50 scientific papers, and he received the U.S. Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal in 1965. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Public Health Association and a member of the American Association of Immunologists and the American Medical Association. Dr. Murray retired in 1973 as an assistant surgeon general. He died in 1980.
Dr. Roderick Murray at left, with Dr. Joseph Smadel, at right, the 1962 Lasker Award winner. National Library of Medicine
He worked in Building 8, Room 224 prior to construction of Building 29. He then worked on the first floor of Building 29, Room 129.
Publications:
- “Viral hepatitis” by Roderick Murray in Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine (1955). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1804570/.
- “Biologics for the Control and Therapy of Virus Diseases” by Roderick Murray in Bacteriology Reviews (1964). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC441250/.
- “Human and animal antibody responses to commercial poliomyelitis vaccine” by U. Pentti Kokko and Roderick Murray in the Bulletin, World Health Organization (1960). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2555319/.
- “Production and testing in the USA of influenza virus vaccine made from the Hong Kong variant in 1968-69” by Roderick Murray in the Bulletin, World Health Organization (1969). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2427701/.