Kathleen Burns

Kathleen Burns, MD, PhD, serves as Chair of the Department of Pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Vice Chair of Pathology and Senior Hematopathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Her laboratory pioneers research on transposable elements and their impact on human disease, particularly cancer biology and diagnostics.

Dr. Burns earned her MD and PhD from Baylor College of Medicine, completed clinical pathology residency and hematopathology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (serving as Chief Resident), and advanced to Professor with tenure at Johns Hopkins. There, she held leadership roles including Deputy Director for Research in Pathology and Director of the Physician-Scientist Training Program before joining Dana-Farber.

Her research program revolutionized understanding of transposable elements, demonstrating their role as major sources of structural variation in human populations (Cell, 2010) and developing the first monoclonal antibody to detect LINE-1 ORF1p. This revealed LINE-1 expression as a hallmark of lethal cancers including lung, prostate, and ovarian malignancies. Current work explores how LINE-1 expression induces interferon responses, promotes cancerous transformation, and creates therapeutic vulnerabilities in DNA repair-deficient cells.

Analysis of Dr. Burns' publications from 2010-2020 shows a cohesive trajectory from foundational genomics to translational cancer research. Her work consistently bridges retrotransposon biology with clinical applications, evolving from mapping insertion polymorphisms to uncovering mechanisms of genome instability and identifying biomarker potential in cancer diagnostics.

Dr. Burns' honors include:

• Election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2018)
• Election to the American Association of University Pathologists
• Election to the Interurban Clinical Club
• Career Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• Scriver Family Visiting Professorship (2019)
• Daria Haust Lectureship at Queen’s University

As Chair of Pathology at Dana-Farber, she leads a department integrating cutting-edge research with clinical pathology. Her laboratory continues investigating transposable element biology with the explicit goal of developing novel cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, particularly leveraging LINE-1 expression for early detection and targeted treatments.