Introduction
Sir John BurnFRCP FRCPE FRCOG FRCPCH FMedSci (born 6 February 1952) is a British professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University.
Education
Burn was born and raised in North East England. He was educated at Barnard Castle Grammar School, (now Teesdale School) and Newcastle University Medical School from 1976 to 1980 from which he was awarded a Bachelor of Medical Sciences (BMedSci) degree in 1973, a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BS) in 1976 and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 1991.
Career and research
Burn has been Professor of Clinical Genetics since 1991 and a consultant specialist since 1984. He is a recognised authority on the genetics of cancer. He led the regional NHS Genetics Service for 20 years and helped to create the Centre for Life which houses an education and science centre alongside the Institute of Genetic Medicine and Northgene Ltd, the identity testing company he launched in 1995. He chairs DNA device company QuantuMDx. He is also a non-executive director of NHS England. He has been newly appointed as Executive Chairman of Global Variome Ltd, a not-for-profit company supporting services to the international coordination work of the Human Variome Project.
Awards and honours
In 2010, Burn was appointed Knight Bachelor by Her Majesty for his outstanding services to medicine. He was chosen as one of the first 20 ‘local heroes’ to have a brass plaque on Newcastle Quayside in 2014. He received the Living North award in 2015 for services to the North East 2000 – 2015.
Media interest
He was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific on Radio 4 first broadcast in February 2018.