Peter Murray receives the 2026 William E. Paul Award
The international Cytokine and Interferon Society honors the independent group leader of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry with the William E. Paul Award 2026 for Excellence in Cytokine Research.
The Cytokine Society honors Peter Murray, Independet Research Group Leader of the research group “Immunregulation” at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany with the 2026 Cytokine Society–BioLegend William E. Paul Award for Excellence in Cytokine Research. This award honors a career that has fundamentally reshaped how the field understands the relationship between cytokines, immune cell function, and metabolism. Peter Murray will deliver the William E. Paul Award Presentation at the Opening Session of the Cytokines 2026 conference on Sunday, October 18, in Glasgow, UK.
Peter Murray’s research has shaped immunology in two key areas. First, he elucidated the molecular basis of the anti-inflammatory effect of IL-10 and established central concepts of cytokine signaling. Furthermore, he was one of the first to recognize that metabolic enzymes in immune cells are far more than mere activation markers—an insight that made him a co-founder of immunometabolics. His work on the role of arginase-1 in macrophages, as well as recent studies on ferroptosis suppression by IL4i1 and IDO1, have not only opened up new fields of research but also have practical implications for cancer therapy. The broad impact of his work is reflected in over 17,000 citations of his guidelines on macrophage polarization. The 2026 William E. Paul Award symbolically links Murray’s work to the legacy of William Paul, whose laboratory first identified the IL4i1 gene, which Murray later studied extensively.
About the Awardee
Peter Murray received his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia 1991. In the same year, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, USA. Since 1998 he performed his research at the St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. In 2017, Murray joined the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and leads the Research Group “Immunoregulation”. Peter Murray has been an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich since 2018. Murray has been honored with various awards and has been a “Highly Cited Researchers” in his field multiple years.
About the William E. Paul Award
The Cytokine Society–BioLegend William E. Paul Award for Excellence in Cytokine Research is presented annually to recognize outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of cytokine biology. The award honors the legacy of William E. Paul, one of the founding figures of modern immunology. Further information: www.cytokinesociety.org
