Jared K. Burks, Ph.D.
Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine
About Dr. Burks
I started my career in research as a research assistant in Max D. Summers’ laboratory studying protein trafficking in baculovirus infected cells. I immediately gravitated to the microscope and I purchased a Zeiss CARV Nipkow spinning disk confocal with Dr. Summers’ funds and was hooked on the world of imaging. This lead to imaging courses and ultimately to my return to graduate school in his laboratory over perusing veterinary medicine. During my PhD training, I was learning to operate a shared resource as Dr. Summers placed me in charge of the confocal scope. I trained every user and developed imaging assays. Ultimately, I ended up identifying Importin-alpha-16, a shuttling protein involved in moving integral membrane proteins through the lateral channel of the nuclear pore complex. This was due to my imaging experiments with BV/ODV E26, which was identified as a viral homolog to this cellular protein.
After completing my PhD, I joined Xing Li Wang’s group at Baylor, where I continued to study viral protein trafficking in infected cells, this time in Cytomegalovirus. This laboratory taught me how to interact with people from other cultures and how to collaborate on a larger scale. However, my PhD and post-Doctoral positions were both quite challenging as both faced specific issues where I was correcting inadvertent mistakes made by others due to technical limitations. This resulted in extensive problem solving to determine where the technical errors were made and in figuring out how to correct them. I found I enjoyed this type of technical research and that I was not able to perform as much imaging as I had wanted.
Therefore, I sought out a position in a shared resource with imaging equipment. Back in my element, I have flourished and am now an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the facility. I have brought eight color imaging to the institution using FFPE samples and multispectral microscopy. I have also introduced and established Mass Cytometry (imaging and suspension), CyTOFs, to MDACC. The latest iteration of mass cytometry technology, which is imaging based is still in development. It uses laser ablation to free material from the slide for analysis through the CyTOF. My other focus is the deficiency in live cell spinning disk confocal imaging. The institution’s fellow researchers have been approaching me for some time to devise and perform these types of imaging experiments. I am also focusing efforts on spatial distribution of cells in tissues and organoids. My strengths lie in being the independent observer that is technically trained to identify, adapt, and utilize technology to answer critical questions that user’s pose. We tackle these problems and we jointly develop solutions when researchers come to the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility at MD Anderson.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Co-Director, Flow Cytometry & Cell Imaging Core Facility, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2005 | Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, PHD, Biology |
| 1995 | Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA, BS, Molecular Biology |
| 1995 | Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA, BS, Pre-Professional Biology |
Postgraduate Training
| 2006-2007 | Postdoctoral Associate, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX |
Experience & Service
Other Appointments/Responsibilities
Assistant Professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center ~ Department of Leukemia, Houston, TX, 2010 - 2018
Research Scientist, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2007 - 2010
Postdoctoral Associate, Baylor College of Medicine - Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery - Michael DeBakey Department of Surgery, Houston, TX, 2006 - 2007
Research Assistant, The Max D. Summers Laboratory, Department of Entomology, College Station, TX, 1995 - 1998
Necropsy Assistant, Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Pathology Laboratory, Little Rock, AR, 1993 - 1993
Laboratory Assistant, Medical Genetics Laboratory, Department of Biology, Melbourne, FL, 1990 - 1994
Honors & Awards
| 2004 | American Society of Virology, 2004 Annual Meeting, McGill University, Montreal, Canada |
| 2003 | Entomology Graduate Student Forum Presentation Award, Texas A&M University |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Carter BZ, Mak PY, Wang X, Tao W, Ruvolo V, Mak D, Mu H, Burks JK, Andreeff M. An ARC-regulated IL1β/Cox-2/PGE2/β-catenin/ARC circuit controls leukemia-microenvironment interactions and confers drug resistance in AML. Cancer Res 79(6):1165-1177, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30674535.
- Dharmaraj N, Piotrowski SL, Huang C, Newton JM, Golfman LS, Hanoteau A, Koshy ST, Li AW, Pulikkathara MX, Zhang B, Burks JK, Mooney DJ, Lei YL, Sikora AG, Young S. Anti-tumor immunity induced by ectopic expression of viral antigens is transient and limited by immune escape. Oncoimmunology 8(4):e1568809, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30906661.
- Reddy JP, Atkinson RL, Larson R, Burks JK, Smith D, Debeb BG, Ruffell B, Creighton CJ, Bambhroliya A, Reuben JM, Van Laere SJ, Krishnamurthy S, Symmans WF, Brewster AM, Woodward WA. Mammary stem cell and macrophage markers are enriched in normal tissue adjacent to inflammatory breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 171(2):283-293, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29858753.
- Ruvolo PP, Ruvolo VR, Burks JK, Qiu Y, Wang RY, Shpall EJ, Mirandola L, Hail N, Zeng Z, McQueen T, Daver N, Post SM, Chiriva-Internati M, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M. Role of MSC-derived galectin 3 in the AML microenvironment. Biochim Biophys Acta 1865(7):959-969, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29655803.
- Jiang X, Mak PY, Mu H, Tao W, Mak DH, Kornblau S, Zhang Q, Ruvolo P, Burks JK, Zhang W, McQueen T, Pan R, Zhou H, Konopleva M, Cortes J, Liu Q, Andreeff M, Carter BZ. Disruption of Wnt/β-Catenin Exerts Antileukemia Activity and Synergizes with FLT3 Inhibition inFLT3-Mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Clin Cancer Res 24(10):2417-2429, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29463558.
- McCarthy RL, Mak DH, Burks JK, Barton MC. Rapid monoisotopic cisplatin based barcoding for multiplexed mass cytometry. Sci Rep 7(1):3779, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28630464.
- Liu S, Anfossi S, Qiu B, Zheng Y, Cai M, Fu J, Yang H, Liu Q, Chen Z, Fu J, Liu M, Burks JK, Lin SH, Reuben J, Liu H. Prognostic Factors for Locoregional Recurrence in Patients with Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treated with Radical Two-Field Lymph Node Dissection: Results from Long-Term Follow-Up. Ann Surg Oncol 24(4):966-973, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27804027.
- Jang HJ, Lee HS, Burt BM, Lee GK, Yoon KA, Park YY, Sohn BH, Kim SB, Kim MS, Lee JM, Joo J, Kim SC, Yun JS, Na KJ, Choi YL, Park JL, Kim SY, Lee YS, Han L, Liang H, Mak D, Burks JK, Zo JI, Sugarbaker DJ, Shim YM, Lee JS. Integrated Genomic Analysis of Recurrence-Associated Small Non-coding RNAs in Oesophageal Cancer. Gut 66(2):215-225, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27507904.
- Mansfield JR, Guest PC, Burks JK. Phenotyping Multiple Subsets of Immune Cells In Situ in Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Sections. Adv Exp Med Biol 974:327-338, 2017. PMID: 28353253.
- Ruvolo PP, Ruvolo VR, Benton CB, AlRawi A, Burks JK, Schober W, Rolke J, Tidmarsh G, Hail N, Davis RE, Andreeff M. Combination of galectin inhibitor GCS-100 and BH3 mimetics eliminates both p53 wild type and p53 null AML cells. Biochim Biophys Acta 1863(4):562-71, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26704388.
- Carter BZ, Mak PY, Chen Y, Mak DH, Mu H, Jacamo R, Ruvolo V, Arold ST, Ladbury JE, Burks JK, Kornblau S, Andreeff M. Anti-apoptotic ARC protein confers chemoresistance by controlling leukemia-microenvironment interactions through a NFκB/IL1β signaling network. Oncotarget 7(15):20054-67, 2016. PMID: 26956049.
- Nduom EK, Wei J, Yaghi NK, Huang N, Kong LY, Gabrusiewicz K, Ling X, Zhou S, Ivan C, Chen JQ, Burks JK, Fuller GN, Calin GA, Conrad CA, Creasy C, Ritthipichai K, Radvanyi L, Heimberger AB. PD-L1 expression and prognostic impact in glioblastoma. Neuro Oncol 18(2):195-205, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26323609.
- Han L, Qiu P, Zeng Z, Jorgensen JL, Mak DH, Burks JK, Schober W, McQueen TJ, Cortes J, Tanner SD, Roboz GJ, Kantarjian HM, Kornblau SM, Guzman ML, Andreeff M, Konopleva M. Single-cell mass cytometry reveals intracellular survival/proliferative signaling in FLT3-ITD-mutated AML stem/progenitor cells. Cytometry A 87(4):346-56, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25598437.
- Zhang Y, Nowicka A, Solley TN, Wei C, Parikh A, Court L, Burks JK, Andreeff M, Woodward WA, Dadbin A, Kolonin MG, Lu KH, Klopp AH. Stromal Cells Derived from Visceral and Obese Adipose Tissue Promote Growth of Ovarian Cancers. PLoS One 10(8):e0136361, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26317219.
- Ruvolo PP, Ruvolo VR, Benton C, Burks JK, Schober W, Rolke J, Tidmarsh G, Hail N, Davis E, Andreeff M. Galectin inhibitor GCS-100 synergizes with BH3 mimetics to eliminate AML cells and sensitizes AML cells to KPT-185 be a mechanism involving suppression of XPO1. Biochim Biophys Acta, 2015.
- Borthakur G, Duvvuri S, Ruvolo V, Tripathi DN, Piya S, Burks JK, Jacamo R, Kojima K, Ruvolo P, Fueyo-Margareto J, Konopleva M, Andreeff M. MDM2 Inhibitor, Nutlin 3a, Induces p53 Dependent Autophagy in Acute Leukemia by AMP Kinase Activation. PLoS One 10(10):e0139254, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26440941.
- Ruvolo PP, Ruvolo VR, Jacamo R, Burks JK, Zeng Z, Duvvuri SR, Zhou L, Qiu Y, Coombes KR, Zhang N, Yoo SY, Pan R, Hail N, Konopleva M, Calin G, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M. The protein phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit B55α is a modulator of signaling and microRNA expression in acute myeloid leukemia cells. Biochim Biophys Acta 1843(9):1969-77, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24858343.
- Mak PY, Mak DH, Mu H, Shi Y, Ruvolo P, Ruvolo V, Jacamo R, Burks JK, Wei W, Huang X, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M, Carter BZ. Apoptosis Repressor with Caspase Recruitment Domain Is Regulated by MAPK/PI3K and Confers Drug Resistance and Survival Advantage to AML. Apoptosis 19(4):698-707, 2014. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24337870.
- Kojima K, Kornblau SM, Ruvolo V, Dilip A, Duvvuri S, Davis RE, Zhang M, Wang Z, Coombes KR, Zhang N, Qiu YH, Burks JK, Kantarjian H, Shacham S, Kauffman M, Andreeff M. Prognostic impact and targeting of CRM1 in acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 121(20):4166-74, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23564911.
- Shah N, Martin-Antonio B, Yang H, Ku S, Lee DA, Cooper LJ, Decker WK, Li S, Robinson SN, Sekine T, Parmar S, Gribben J, Wang M, Rezvani K, Yvon E, Najjar A, Burks JK, Kaur I, Champlin RE, Bollard CM, Shpall EJ. Antigen Presenting Cell-Mediated Expansion of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Yields Log-Scale Expansion of Natural Killer Cells with Anti-Myeloma Activity. PLoS One 8(10):1-9, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 24204673.
- Mazurek N, Byrd JC, Sun Y, Hafley M, Ramirez K, Burks JK, Bresalier RS. Cell-surface galectin-3 confers resistance to TRAIL by impeding trafficking of death receptors in metastatic colon adenocarcinoma cells. Cell Death Differ 19(3):523-33, 2012. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21941373.
- Kidd S, Spaeth E, Watson K, Burks JK, Lu H, Klopp A, Andreeff M, Marini FC. Origins of the tumor microenvironment: quantitative assessment of adipose-derived and bone marrow-derived stroma. PLoS One 7(2):e30563, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22363446.
- Ruvolo PP, Zhou L, Watt JC, Ruvolo VR, Burks JK, Jiffar T, Kornblau S, Konopleva M, Andreeff M. Targeting PKC Mediated Signal Transduction Pathways Using Enzastaurin to Promote Apoptosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia-derived Cell Lines and Blast Cells. J Cell Biochem 112(6):1696-707, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21360576.
- Kojima K, Burks JK, Arts J, Andreeff M. The novel tryptamine derivative JNJ-26854165 induces wild-type p53- and E2F1-mediated apoptosis in acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias. Mol Cancer Ther 9(9):2545-57, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20736344.
- Xing D, Ramsay AG, Gribben JG, Decker WK, Burks JK, Munsell M, Li S, Robinson SN, Yang H, Steiner D, Shah N, McMannis JD, Champlin RE, Hosing C, Zweidler-McKay PA, Shpall EJ, Bollard CM. Cord blood natural killer cells exhibit impaired lytic immunological synapse formation that is reversed with IL-2 exvivo expansion. J Immunother 33(7):684-96, 2010. PMID: 20664358.
- Zhang W, Konopleva M, Burks JK, Dywer KC, Schober WD, Yang JY, McQueen TJ, Hung MC, Andreeff M. Blockade of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase and murine double minute synergistically induces Apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia via BH3-only proteins Puma and Bim. Cancer Res 70(6):2424-34, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20215498.
- Ling X, Marini F, Konopleva M, Schober W, Shi Y, Burks JK, Clise-Dwyer K, Wang RY, Zhang W, Yuan X, Lu H, Caldwell L, Andreeff M. Mesenchymal Stem Cells Overexpressing IFN-ß Inhibit Breast Cancer Growth and Metastases through Stat3 Signaling in a Syngeneic Tumor Model. Cancer Microenviron 3(1):83-95, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 21209776.
- Serda RE, Gu J, Burks JK, Ferrari K, Ferrari C, Ferrari M. Quantitative mechanics of endothelial phagocytosis of silicon microparticles. Cytometry A 75(9):752-60, 2009. PMID: 19610127.
- Fiegl M, Samudio I, Clise-Dwyer K, Burks JK, Mnjoyan Z, Andreeff M. CXCR4 expression and biologic activity in acute myeloid leukemia are dependent on oxygen partial pressure. Blood 113(7):1504-12, 2009. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18957686.
- Zhang C, Zhang MX, Shen YH, Burks JK, Li XN, LeMaire SA, Yoshimura K, Aoki H, Matsuzaki M, An FS, Engler DA, Matsunami RK, Coselli JS, Zhang Y, Wang XL. Role of NonO-histone interaction in TNFalpha-suppressed prolyl-4-hydroxylase alpha1. Biochim Biophys Acta 1783(8):1517-28, 2008. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18439917.
- Zhang C, Zhang MX, Shen YH, Burks JK, Zhang Y, Wang J, LeMaire SA, Yoshimura K, Aoki H, Coselli JS, Wang XL. TNF-alpha suppresses prolyl-4-hydroxylase alpha1 expression via the ASK1-JNK-NonO pathway. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 27(8):1760-7, 2007. e-Pub 2007. PMID: 17478756.
- Burks JK, Summers MD, Braunagel SC. BV/ODV-E26: a palmitoylated, multifunctional structural protein of Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus. Virology 361(1):194-203, 2007. e-Pub 2006. PMID: 17169392.
- Saksena S, Summers MD, Burks JK, Johnson AE, Braunagel SC. Importin-alpha-16 is a translocon-associated protein involved in sorting membrane proteins to the nuclear envelope. Nat Struct Mol Biol 13(6):500-8, 2006. e-Pub 2006. PMID: 16715095.
- Braunagel SC, Burks JK, Rosas-Acosta G, Harrison RL, Ma H, Summers MD. Mutations within the Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus FP25K gene decrease the accumulation of ODV-E66 and alter its intranuclear transport. J Virol 73(10):8559-70, 1999. PMID: 10482609.
- Kannan S, Aitken MJL, Herbrich SM, Golfman LS, Hall MG, Mak DH, Burks JK, Song G, Konopleva M, Mullighan CG, Chandra J, Zweidler-McKay PA. Anti-Leukemia Effects of Notch-Mediated Inhibition of Oncogenic PLK1 in B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Mol Cancer Ther. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31227645.
- Han L, Zhang Q, Dail M, Shi C, Cavazos A, Ruvolo VR, Zhao Y, Kim E, Rahmani M, Mak DH, Jin SS, Chen J, Phillips DC, Bottecelli Koller P, Jacamo R, Burks JK, DiNardo C, Daver N, Jabbour E, Wang J, Kantarjian HM, Andreeff M, Grant S, Leverson JD, Sampath D, Konopleva M. Concomitant targeting of BCL2 with venetoclax and MAPK signaling with cobimetinib in acute myeloid leukemia models. Haematologica. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31123034.
Invited Articles
- Gabrusiewicz K, Li X, Wei J, Hashimoto Y, Marisetty AL, Ott M, Wang F, Hawke D, Yu J, Healy LM, Hossain A, Akers JC, Maiti SN, Yamashita S, Shimizu Y, Dunner K, Zal MA, Burks JK, Gumin J, Nwajei F, Rezavanian A, Zhou S, Rao G, Sawaya R, Fuller GN, Huse JT, Antel JP, Li S, Cooper L, Sulman EP, Chen C, Geula C, Kalluri R, Zal T, Heimberger AB. Glioblastoma stem cell-derived exosomes induce M2 macrophages and PD-L1 expression on human monocytes. Oncoimmunology 7(4):e1412909, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29632728.
Other Articles
- Andreeff M, Zeng Z, Tabe Y, Samudio I, Fiegl M, Watt J, Dietrich, M., McQueen T, Frolova O, Battula L, Mnjoyan Z, Shi Y-X, Konoplev S, Burks JK, Konopleva M Microenvironment and leukemia: Yin and yang. Ann Hematol Suppl:1: S94-S98, 2008.
Abstracts
- Fiegl M, Samudio IJ, Dwyer KC, Burks JK, Fritsche H, Mnjoyan ZH, Andreeff M. CXCR4 Expression and Biological Activity Is Dependent on Oxygen Partial Pressure in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Blood 112(11), 2008.
- Ramsay AG, Xing D-X, Decker WK, Burks JK, Wierda WG, Gribben JG, Shpall EJ. Compared to Adult Peripheral Blood T Cells, Cord Blood T Cells Show Enhanced Immunological Recognition of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Tumor Cells 112(2333), 2008.
- Zhang W, Konopleva M, Burks JK, Dywer K, Schober W, Yang JY, McQueen T, Hung MC, Andreeff M. Apoptosis induction in acute myeloid leukemia by inhibition of MEK and MDM2 is strongly associated with the BH3-only proteins Puma and Bim, 2008.
- Braunagel SC, Saksena S, Burks JK, Johnson AE, Summers MD. Importin alpha-16: a translocon-associated protein potentially involved in sorting integral membrane proteins to the nuclear envelope, 2006.
- Zhang C, Zhang M-X, Shen YH, Burks JK, Zhang Y, LeMaire SA, Coselli JS, Wang XL. TNF{alpha} Suppresses Prolyl-4-Hydroxylase a (I) (P4Ha(I)) Expression and Collagen Processing in Aortic SMCs via JNK Pathway, 2006.
- Zhang M-X, Shen YH, Zhang C, Burks JK, LeMaire SA, Wang J, Coselli JS, Wang XL. Endogenous eNOS-Specific 27nt MicroRNA is derived through Pre-mRNA Splicing, 2006.
- Zhang M-X, Zhang C, Shen YH, Zhang L, Burks JK, Wang J, Coselli JS, Wang XL. Endogenous 27nt microRNA inhibits eNOS Expression through DNA Methylation, 2006.
Book Chapters
- Burks JK. Imaging tools for cellular uptake and intracellular trafficking. In: Mass transport of Nanocarriers. Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd, 221-240, 2012.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Cancer Center Support Grant, PP-SR-12; Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Facility |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Director |