Mural is one of 16 scientists from around the world who will spend a month this winter at McMundo Station Science Center in Antarctica to study the biological adaptations of Antarctic marine organisms. In addition to course participation, she will examine the expression of genes that are involved in DNA repair and photoreactivation, the repair of DNA using energy from sunlight, in ice algae. This is an extension of ongoing research at ORNL concerning the effects of ultraviolet light on biological systems. Mural has done similar research in Russia.
Mural came to ORNL in 1985 as a graduate student in the Biology Division. In 1991, she began working in the Environmental Sciences Division as an Oak Ridge Associated Universities postdoctoral researcher.
She received a bachelor's degree in biology from Emory University and earned her doctoral degree in immunology and pathobiology at the University of Tennessee through the Oak Ridge Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Mural is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Science-by-Mail. She and her husband, Richard, live in Kingston.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the Department of Energy's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.