From teaching to medicine
After studying at Oregon, Murphy taught mathematics and physics before pursuing medicine. He received his Harvard medical degree in 1922, worked in hospitals in Rhode Island and Boston, and investigated diabetes and blood disorders.
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Collaboration with Minot
Following Whipple’s findings on foods and blood regeneration in animals, Murphy and Minot investigated liver-based treatment in pernicious-anemia patients, reporting improvement in 1926. Later identification of vitamin B12 helped explain the biochemical basis of this historical treatment research.
Later hematological work
Murphy continued investigating liver extracts and blood diseases, taught medicine at Harvard and served as a consulting hematologist. He shared the 1934 Nobel Prize with Minot and Whipple and published a book on pernicious-anemia practice in 1939.