Bryan Burt

Dr. Bryan Burt serves as Professor and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, where he also directs the General Thoracic Surgery Fellowship program and oversees faculty mentorship within the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. A Harvard-trained thoracic surgeon and surgical oncologist, he specializes in robotic and minimally invasive approaches for complex thoracic malignancies and benign conditions, emphasizing multidisciplinary patient-centered care.

His educational foundation includes a BA from New York University, MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and dual residencies in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Burt's research program centers on improving surgical outcomes for thoracic cancers through translational science, with particular focus on malignant pleural mesothelioma, lung cancer, and thymic tumors. His NIH-funded laboratory investigates onco-immunological mechanisms to develop novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies, bridging bench discoveries to clinical applications in robotic surgery and multimodal cancer treatment.

Analysis of his 14 recent publications reveals a dominant research trajectory in malignant pleural mesothelioma, spanning genomic subtyping, immunoproteogenomic profiling, and surgical predictability modeling. This work integrates molecular oncology with surgical innovation, demonstrating consistent emphasis on identifying prognostic biomarkers and optimizing resection techniques for thoracic malignancies.

His scientific accolades include the Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award for Enduring Education and Early Career Faculty Award for Excellence in Patient Care at Baylor College of Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha honor society induction, and multiple departmental prizes from Weill Cornell and Brigham & Women’s Hospital including the Peter Bent Brigham Scholar Award and Clarence Coryell Prize in Surgery.

As Program Director for the Thoracic Surgery Fellowship, Dr. Burt mentors surgical trainees in advanced robotic techniques while leading the Systems Onco-Immunology Laboratory. His NIH-funded research portfolio includes a dedicated mesothelioma grant, supporting investigations into tumor microenvironment interactions and immunotherapeutic applications. Clinical grants focus on optimizing minimally invasive approaches for high-risk thoracic patients.

The Systems Onco-Immunology Laboratory, directed by Dr. Burt, conducts translational research on immune-tumor interactions in mesothelioma and lung cancer. The team employs immunoproteogenomic techniques to identify therapeutic targets, with current projects examining interleukin-4 receptor signaling and myeloid cell dynamics in pleural malignancies.