AAOOP

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Dr. A. Linn Murphree, Professor of Ophthalmology, Founder of the Vision Center, and Director of the Retinoblastoma Program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California passed peacefully on March 9th, 2022.Linn, as he was known, was a tremendous force in ocular oncology, known for his role in the cloning of the RB1 gene and his passion and purpose for treating children with retinoblastoma.

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.

At the end of his fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he found his first and only professional post. He assumed the position of Division Chief of Pediatric Ophthalmology at CHLA, USC.

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 at CHLA -- a center that is still thriving.

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 optical engineers. 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.

Dr. Murphree’s work on chemo thermotherapy published in 1983 was a model for retinoblastoma treatments using IV chemotherapy combined with local treatments. He is the author or co-author of more than 70 major papers on retinoblastoma genetics and retinoblastoma care. He received many accolades during his career, including the prestigious Stallard Award from the International Society of Ocular Oncology in Paris in 2015 and the Helen Keller award for the impact of the cloning of the RB1 gene in 2018. He will be remembered most for the hundreds of children with retinoblastoma and their families for whom he cared deeply, and by the many doctors he trained to do the same who now practice around the world.