Martin D. Burke

Burke earned his B.A. in 1998 with a degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. While at Johns Hopkins, Burke did undergraduate research with Henry Brem and Gary H. Posner. He then moved to Harvard Medical School as a PhD/MD student in the interdisciplinary Health Sciences and Technology program. From 1999 to 2003 Burke completed his thesis research in organic synthesis as an HHMI Graduate Fellow under the direction of Stuart Schreiber in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University. Thereafter, he completed his clinical rotations as an NIH Fellow in the Medical Scientist Training Program and graduated from medical school in 2005.

In 2005, Burke began his independent career as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where his research focuses on the synthesis and study of small-molecule natural products that perform protein-like functions.

Small-molecule natural products that perform protein-like functions may ultimately serve as substitutes for missing or dysfunctional proteins that underlie human diseases, thereby operating as prostheses on the molecular scale.[6] To enable these studies, Burke's group is pioneering a synthesis strategy, dubbed iterative cross-coupling, that aims to make the process of complex small molecule synthesis as simple, efficient, and flexible as possible.[7] This work has led to the development of more than 175 commercially available MIDA boronate building blocks that are now enabling the more effective synthesis of small molecules in many different academic and industrial institutions throughout the world.[8] Burke's group is now harnessing the power of this chemistry to systematically dissect the structure/function relationships that underlie the protein-like activities of a variety of prototypical small molecules, including the ion channel-forming polyene macrolide amphotericin B and the self-preserving antilipoperoxidant carotenoid peridinin. Burke's group discovered that a small molecule iron transporter, hinokitiol, could restore gut iron absorption in mice and rats and restore hemoglobinization in zebrafish deficient in Ferroportin, DMT1, and Mitoferrin respectively.[9][10][11][12] This study represents the first example of the molecular prosthetics approach working in a whole animal model. Burke and his research group have developed a machine for on-demand automated synthesis of small molecules to harness the function of natural products and their derivatives.[13][14][15][16] Collectively, these efforts seek to build the foundation for the development of molecular prosthetics as a powerful and general strategy for the understanding and betterment of human health.