{{Short description|American biochemist and medical researcher (1904–1988)}} {{Infobox person | name = Dean Burk | image = M. Dean Burk.jpg | image_size = | caption = | other_names = M. Dean Burk | birth_name = Dean Turner Burk | birth_date = {{birth date|1904|03|21}} | birth_place = Oakland, California, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1988|10|06|1904|03|21}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | occupation = | education = University of California, Davis | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley | spouse = Mildred Chaundy Burk<ref>{{cite web |author1=Robert Welkos |title=Dean Burk, Supporter of Laetrile, Dies |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-10-11-mn-3603-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=18 October 2019 |date=October 11, 1988}}</ref> | children = | father = Frederic Lister Burk | website = }} '''Dean Turner Burk''' (March 21, 1904 – October 6, 1988)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Essig Museum of Entomology Collections |url=https://essigdb.berkeley.edu/cgi/eme_people_query?table=eme_people&one=T&name_full=Dean+Burk |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=essigdb.berkeley.edu}}</ref> was an American biochemist, medical researcher, and a cancer researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and the National Cancer Institute.<ref name=AP1988/> In 1934, he developed the Lineweaver–Burk plot together with Hans Lineweaver.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Lineweaver, H |author2=Burk, D. | year = 1934 | title = The Determination of Enzyme Dissociation Constants | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | volume = 56 | issue = 3 | pages = 658–666 | doi = 10.1021/ja01318a036 |bibcode=1934JAChS..56..658L }}.</ref> Lineweaver and Burk collaborated with the eminent statistician W. Edwards Deming on the statistical analysis of their data:<ref>{{cite journal | author = Lineweaver H, Burk D, Deming, W E | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | volume = 56 | pages = 225–230 | title = The dissociation constant of nitrogen-nitrogenase in ''Azobacter'' | year = 1934 | doi = 10.1021/ja01316a071 | bibcode = 1934JAChS..56..225L }}</ref> they used the plot for illustration, not for the analysis.
== Early life == Dean Turner Burk was born on March 21, 1904, in Oakland in Alameda County.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Essig Museum of Entomology Collections |url=https://essigdb.berkeley.edu/cgi/eme_people_query?table=eme_people&one=T&name_full=Dean+Burk |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=essigdb.berkeley.edu}}</ref> Dean was the second of four sons born to Frederic Lister Burk, the founding President of the San Francisco Normal School, a preparatory school for teachers which eventually became San Francisco State University.
He entered the University of California, Davis at the age of 15. A year later, he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his B.S. degree in Entomology in 1923. Four years later, he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}
==Professional career== Burk joined the Department of Agriculture in 1929 working in the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory.<ref name=AP1988>{{cite news | agency = Associated Press | date = October 10, 1988 | title = Dean Burk, 84, Chemist for Cancer Institute | work = New York Times | page = B8 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/10/obituaries/dean-burk-84-chemist-for-cancer-institute.html}}</ref> In 1939, he joined the Cancer Institute as a senior chemist. He was head of the cytochemistry laboratory when he retired in 1974. He also taught biochemistry at the Cornell University Medical School from 1939 to 1941.<ref name="AP1988" /> He was a research master at George Washington University. Burk was a close friend and co-author with Otto Heinrich Warburg.<ref name="Weiterentwicklung">Weiterentwicklung der zellphysiologischen Methoden: angewandt auf Krebs, Photosynthese und Wirkungsweise der Röntgenstrahlung: Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1945–1961, (Thieme, Stuttgart 1962) (Trans: Further Developments of Methods in Cellular Physiology applied to Cancer, Photosynthesis and the Effects of X-ray Radiation) Texts in German and English.</ref> He was a co-developer of the prototype of the Magnetic Resonance Scanner.<ref name=AP1988/><ref>I Weisman, L. Bennett, L. Maxwell Sr., M. Woods, and D. Burk (1972)"''Recognition of Cancer in vivo by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance''", '''Science''' 178, 1288 – 1290.</ref> Burk published more than 250 scientific articles in his lifetime.<ref>Burk D, Schade AL. ''On respiratory impairment in cancer cells''. '''Science'''. 1956 Aug 10;124(3215):270-2.</ref> He later became head of the National Cancer Institute's Cytochemistry Sector in 1938, although he is often mistaken as leading the entire facility.
==Retirement== After retiring from the NCI in 1974, Dean Burk remained active. He devoted himself to his opposition to water fluoridation.<ref>J Yiamouyiannis, D Burk [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=dean+burk+fluoride&hl=en&lr=&btnG=Search "''Fluoridation and cancer, age-dependence of cancer mortality related to artificial fluoridation'']" Fluoride 1977.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000111034004/http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/display.cfm?ID=19990817225011 Consumer Health Articles: FLUORIDATION]</ref>{{Better source needed|date=June 2020}} He and a coauthor published an analysis of cancer mortality in 10 cities that fluoridated the drinking water supply and 10 that didn't. The paper was criticized for using overly broad grouping and making assumptions about variations in racial composition of cities. Epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute analyzed the findings and found no significant increase in cancer mortality associated with fluoridation.<ref name="pmid6360403">{{cite journal| author=Clemmesen J| title=The alleged association between artificial fluoridation of water supplies and cancer: a review. | journal=Bull World Health Organ | year= 1983 | volume= 61 | issue= 5 | pages= 871–83 | pmid=6360403 | pmc=2536164 }}</ref><ref name=open>[http://openjurist.org/619/f2d/932/yiamouyiannis-v-consumers-union-of-united-states-inc#fn3 619 F. 2d 932 – Yiamouyiannis v. Consumers Union of United States Inc]</ref> Burk considered "fluoridation as "mass murder on a grand scale."<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211210/ClqK7XvfLg0 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120123040553/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqK7XvfLg0 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqK7XvfLg0| title = Dr. Dean Burk - Fluoride causes cancer | website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Dean Burk argued on Dutch television against a water fluoridation proposal which was before the Dutch Parliament in the Netherlands.<ref name=open/> He also was an avid supporter of laetrile; an alleged cancer treatment regarded by the medical community as ineffective and potentially dangerous.<ref name=Burk1970>Burk, D. (1970). [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3955623 Laetrile and Cancer]. ''Science News''.</ref>
==Recognition== For his work on photosynthesis, Dean Burk received the Hillebrand Prize in 1952. Dean Burk and Otto Heinrich Warburg discovered the photosynthesis I-quantum reaction that splits CO<sub>2</sub> activated by respiration.<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/BF00601375 | journal = Arch. Biochem. | volume = 37 | number = 24 | pages = 560 | last1 = Burk | first1 = D. | last2 = Warburg | first2 = O. | title = 1-Quanten-Mechanismus und Energie-Kreisprozess bei der Photosynthese| date = 1950 | bibcode = 1950NW.....37..560B | s2cid = 28860370 }}</ref><ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1931/warburg.html Otto Warburg - Biography] - Nobelprize.org</ref> For his techniques to distinguish between normal cells and those damaged by cancer, Dean Burk was awarded the Gerhard Domagk Prize in 1965.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/10/obituaries/dean-burk-84-chemist-for-cancer-institute.html | work=The New York Times | title=Dean Burk, 84, Chemist for Cancer Institute | date=October 10, 1988}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burk}} Category:1904 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Alternative cancer treatment advocates Category:20th-century American biochemists Category:American cancer researchers Category:University of California, Davis alumni Category:Water fluoridation