About

Dr. Burks is the Dean of the UNC School of Medicine and the Chief Executive Officer of UNC HealthCare. He is a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and a physician scientist specializing in the field of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

Dr. Burks is a pediatric allergist and immunologist. He is an internationally renowned authority on food allergies, including anaphylaxis and other reactions to peanut, egg and milk exposure. He also has expertise in other childhood allergic diseases, such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis and eosinophilic esophagitis. His research interests include:

• Investigating the use of oral immunotherapy for children with severe food hypersensitivities to provide insight into the disease and to develop possible new avenues of treatment.
• Exploring how to induce tolerance and desensitization in peanut allergy through oral, sublingual or epicutaneous exposure in human clinical trials and ongoing development of mouse models aimed at investigating the use of potential immune therapies in humans.
• Understanding the biological mechanisms of food allergy through bench and clinical trials, including the collaborative development of a mice model for peanut allergy and the identification of a genetic phenotype in certain mouse strains.