Burns joins Department of Psychiatry

Marie Burns has joined the Department of Psychiatry as an assistant professor, working in the adult psychiatry section.

Burns has a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, where she was valedictorian in 1992. She earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in neurobiology from Duke University, completing her degrees in 1996. Burns has clinical interests in the molecular mechanisms of anxiety and depression as well as addiction and tolerance. She is also interested in retinal degenerative diseases.

Burns’ research focuses on the temporal regulation of signal transduction mechanisms. Her model system has been photoreceptor cells of the retina, which use similar signaling cascades, but generate signals with very different temporal properties. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology at Stanford University. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.