Martin Burke: Replacing Lost Proteins to Treat Disease

As a medical student, Martin Burke, M.D., Ph.D., helped care for a young college student with cystic fibrosis (CF), an inherited disease that affects the body’s ability to make sweat and mucus. Dr. Burke had just studied CF in class, so he relayed what he had learned to her. He had a lot of information to give—doctors and researchers know the exact amino acid changes in an ion channel protein called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) that cause CF. Credit: UIUC News Bureau, Fred Zwicky. “At one point in the conversation, she stopped me and said, ‘It sounds like you know exactly what’s wrong with me, so why can’t you fix it?’” Dr. Burke, now the May and Ving Lee Professor for Chemical Innovation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), never forgot this question. In fact, it’s inspired his career-long search for new ways to develop therapies for diseases without effective treatment options. Doctor or Baseball Player When he was a child growing up in Maryland, Dr. Burke dreamed of having one of two careers: doctor or baseball player. “The Orioles never called,” he says with a laugh, “but I was given the opportunity to go to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on a scholarship.” There, he studied chemistry on the premed track and was exposed to the potential of biomedical research in making a positive change in the world. Combining that awe of the power of research with his desire to be a physician, ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Tools and Techniques Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs