Fourth-year medical student Madeleine Burns is a dedicated researcher, already listed as a co-author in 13 published papers, including four in which she is a lead author.
So much of medicine is guided by new studies and findings, especially in large medication trials, that can have significant impacts on patients’ lives. As a physician, I want to be a bridge between patients and medical research.
Madeleine Burns
“I’ve found myself coming back to research in all the different chapters of my life,” said Burns who is applying into internal medicine residency.
Throughout medical school, she has been working with Naomi Hamburg, MD, a cardiologist and the inaugural Joseph A. Vita Professor of Medicine. In her final year in medical school, Burns is using a two-month block of dedicated research time as the lead author of a multi-year study utilizing mobile text-messaging to learn how young adults change their tobacco use patterns over time.
“Having those weeks where I was able to work on my project in the lab, collaborate with my co-workers and attend lab meetings was really helpful for me to grow as a researcher,” Burns said.
The daughter of a physician father and a pharmacist mother, it may seem that a medical career was an obvious choice for Burns,
“Interestingly, the expectation was not for us to go into medicine. If anything, they encouraged us to do other things,” said Burns. “I really loved reading, studying literature in college and picking apart passages in books,” Burns said. “But I always came back to wanting to work with people.”
Burns was initiated into research at the Massachusetts General Hospital, first in cystic fibrosis medication trials, followed by three years studying immune responses to COVID-19 in children, while also getting her master’s degree in BU’s Masters in Medical Sciences.
“So much of medicine is guided by new studies and findings, especially in large medication trials, that can have significant impacts on patients’ lives. As a physician, I want to be a bridge between patients and medical research,” Burns said.