Dr. A. Linn Murphree is Professor of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics at Keck School
of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC), and Director of the USC
Ocular Oncology Service and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)
Retinoblastoma Program.
Following his training as a Fulbright Fellow in Human Genetics at the University of
Copenhagen, Dr. Murphree began his medical training at Baylor College of
Medicine with an established interest in human genetics. He discovered
ophthalmology in medical school as well as an abiding interest in pediatrics. He
combined those three interests by focusing during his ophthalmology residency
on ophthalmic genetic diseases, including retinoblastoma.
Dr. Murphree assumed the position of Head, Pediatric Ophthalmology in the USC
Department of Ophthalmology and Head, Ophthalmology at CHLA, upon
completion of his fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology at John Hopkins Hospital.
With his first NIH grant, he demonstrated by deletion mapping that the RB1 gene
was located in 13q14. Subsequently he developed a clinical referral practice
focused on ocular oncology and developed the largest retinoblastoma referral
center west of the Mississippi.
During his retinoblastoma clinical practice, Dr. Murphree recognized an unmet
clinical need for a wide-field retinal camera to document the intraocular findings
associated with retinoblastoma. He recruited a team of engineers and
collaborated with optical engineers in private industry. The result was the
invention of the RetCam®, which is a commercially available pediatric retinal
camera used worldwide to document not only retinoblastoma but also many
other retinal abnormalities, including retinopathy of prematurity. The RetCam III
is currently licensed and marketed by Clarity Medical Systems, Inc.
Dr. Murphree’s work on chemo thermotherapy published in 1983 was a model for
retinoblastoma treatments using chemotherapy IV combined with local
treatments. He is the author or coauthor of more than 70 major papers on
retinoblastoma genetics and retinoblastoma care.