James Murtagh is a doctor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.  Murtagh’s career combines both writing and science.  He has earned awards as an essay writer, as a Merit scholar and as a Westinghouse science award recipient.  After graduation with top honors from a six-year combined medical program at University of Michigan medical school, Murtagh did his residency in internal medicine at Parkland Hospital in Dallas Texas.  He then sub-specialized in pulmonary and critical care at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he served as a staff scientist in molecular biology for five years.  Later, he took the lead in the emerging field of Sleep Medicine.

In 1991, James Murtagh became assistant professor at Emory University medical school.  He earned tenure in less than four years, and was awarded more than $2 million in grants for innovative research, and was awarded three patents for DNA detection methods.  Dr Murtagh became a prolific writer, authoring more than 40 articles (in Journal of Biologic Chemistry, Biotechniques, Nucleic Acid Research), and contributed to books on more general medicine topics and on bioethics.  He became a scientific advisor to Boehringer Mannheim.  Dr Murtagh served at Atlanta VA hospital and at Grady Memorial County Hospital on joint appointment.

In recent years, Dr Murtagh has devoted substantial effort to medical ethics and medical writing. He is a founder of the medial ethics consulting group "Team Integrity." Murtagh recently chaired a congressional forum "The Health Integrity Project," as reported in Time Magazine in collaboration with Tom Devine at the Washington "Government Accountability Project."

To read his most recent movie reviews, click on the link: Million Dollar Baby
                                                                                                 North Country
                                                                                                 Match Point
                                                                                                 Good Night and Good Luck
                                                                                                 After Innocence
                                                                                                 Why We Fight
                                                                                                 Tsotsi
                                                                                                 The Da Vinci Code
                                                                                                 Guantánamo 
                                                                                                 SiCKO
                                                                                                 Harry Potter
                                                                                                 Michael Clayton

Read some of his most recent articles: Sleep Awareness Week, Whistleblower's Week in Washington, Do-Not-Resuscitate.

 A Selected List of Articles by Dr. Murtagh (Galen)

1)      Murtagh JJ Jr.: Gout: Modern management of an ancient disease, J Dallas Med. Soc. 71(5):314, 1985.

2)      Murtagh JJ Jr.: Pulmonary worm disease: The untold story.  J Dallas Med. Soc. 1986;72(2):176.

3)      Murtagh JJ Jr.: In defense of recombinant DNA research. In: Science and Ethical Responsibility (SA Lakoff, ed.).  Readington, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing, pp.187-203, 1980

4)      Murtagh JJ Jr.: When pharmacist and physician disagree.  In:  Difficult Decisions in Medical Ethics (D Ganos, ed.). New York:  Alan R. Liss, Inc., p. 195 1983.

5)      Murtagh JJ Jr., Price SR, Van Meurs KP, Angus CW, Moss J, Vaughan M: Signal transduction by guanine nucleotide-binding proteins: Possible molecular basis for multiple forms of Go_ mRNA.  Trans Assoc Am Phys 1988;CI:235

6)      Murtagh JJ Jr., Eddy R, Shows TB, Moss J, Vaughan M: Different forms of Go_ mRNA arise by alternative splicing of the transcript of a single gene on human chromosome 16.  Mol Cell Biol 1991;11:1146-55

7)      Chu CS, Trapnell BC, Murtagh JJ Jr., Moss J, Dalemans W, Pavirani A, Lecocq JP, Cutting G, Guggino W,.Crystal RG: Variable expression of the cystic fibrosis gene in the human airways: Variable deletion of exon 9 coding sequences in cystic fibrosis mRNA transcripts in normal bronchial epithelium    EMBO 1991;10:1355-63

8)      Murtagh JJ Jr., Mowatt MJ,  Lee CM,  Mishima K, Nash T,  Moss J, Vaughan M: Guanine nucleotide-dependent signaling pathways in the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia : Isolation of a gene encoding a 20 kDa ADP-ribosylation factor. J Biol Chem, 1992;267:9654-62

9)      Holloway B, Erdman DD, Durigon EL, Murtagh JJ Jr.  The exonuclease-amplification coupled capture technique improves PCR diagnosis of human parvovirus B19 infection. Nucleic Acids Research, 1993; 16:3905-3906

10)   Murtagh JJ Jr., Lee FJS, Deak P, Hall LM, Monaco L, Lee CM, Stefens LA, Moss J, Vaughan M. Molecular Characterization of a Conserved, Guanine Nucleotide-Dependent ADP-Ribosylation Factor in Drosophila Melanogaster.  Biochemistry, 1993, 32:6011-18

11)   Murtagh JJ Jr., The multigene families of guanine nucleotide-binding proteins:  Evolutionary and computational analysis, Computers and Chemistry, 1993; 17:165-175

12)   Murtagh JJ Jr., Moss J, Vaughan M:  Alternative splicing generates four distinct Goa transcripts: elucidation of molecular mechanisms.  Nucleic Acids Research,1994;22:842-9

13)   Murtagh JJ Jr., Bai X, Vaghmar R.  Zipper DNA Recombination: Multipurpose Adapters enhance Solid Phase sequencing and cloning.  In Uhlen M, Hornes E, Olsvik Ĝ (eds.), Advanced in Biomagnetic Separation.  Eaton Publishing, Natick, MA, 1994, pp. 49-60

14)   Somers VA. Leimbach DA. Murtagh JJ Jr. Thunnissen FB. Exonuclease enhances hybridization efficiencyBiochimica et Biophysica Acta. 1379(1):42-52, 1998 Jan 8.

15)    Rivera-Marrero CA. Burroughs MA. Masse RA. Vannberg FO. Leimbach DL. Roman J. Murtagh JJ Jr. Identification of genes differentially expressed in Mycobacteriumtuberculosis by differential display PCR. Microbial Pathogenesis. 25(6):307-16, 1998 Dec.