Dr. Jane Burns & Dr. John Gordon

I’m inspired by medical mysteries and sick children.

Dr. Burns and Dr. Gordon have devoted their careers to solving the mystery of Kawasaki Disease. Every year they diagnose and treat about 100 new cases here in San Diego. The cause of this disease still remains a mystery but your support can help find a cure.

Kawasaki Disease is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children, yet its cause remains unknown. It’s a mystery Jane Burns has dedicated more than two decades to help solve. Burns is the director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at UCSD/Rady Children’s Hospital where she leads a multidisciplinary team that cares for about 80 new Kawasaki disease patients each year and follows more than 1,200 families in the clinic.

Her husband, Dr. John B. Gordon, is an interventional cardiologist who cares for adults with long-term after-effects of Kawasaki Disease (KD). Together, the couple and a team from UCSD have launched The Adult KD Collaborative, an epidemiologic and clinical study of cardiovascular biomarkers and functional studies in adults who suffered from KD in childhood.

Burns, who is also a mother of two daughters, earned her M.D. degree at the University of North Carolina and completed her pediatric residency and chief residency at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

In 1983, Burns went to Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children’s Hospital for additional training in pediatric infectious diseases and molecular virology. She joined the faculty at Harvard in 1986 and in 1990 moved to San Diego and joined the faculty at the University of California, where she was appointed Chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology in 2000.

Podcast:
January 17, 2012

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