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Anat Burger

Assistant Professor

Anat Burger
Anat Burger

Prof. Anat Burger is new to the department as of Fall 2019, moving from Boston, Massachusetts.  Dr. Burger’s research is at the intersection of physics, biology, mathematics, and computer science.  Her work specializes in modeling stochastic noise in biological systems, particularly in the transcriptional regulation of gene networks.

Dr. Burger received her undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her PhD from the University of California, San Diego.  Her Ph.D. work looked at the effects of non-functional transcription factor binding on the functioning of gene networks.  She was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University where she worked in collaboration with experimentalists to analyze and model biological experiments.  One project was to study the effects of aging on the germline stem cells of fly testes.  Another project used bioinformatics techniques to track transcriptional regulation over the course of the development of a worm embryo.  At a second post-doc at Harvard Medical School, in the field of computational radiation oncology, she worked on digital phantom models of lung tumor radiation treatments.

Dr. Burger has held positions as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at Salem State University, Mount Holyoke College, and Simmons University.

Recent Publications

  • Hsu HT, Chen HM, Yang Z, Wang J, Lee NK, Burger A, Zaret K, Liu T, Levine E, Mango SE, (2015) “Recruitment of RNA polymerase II by the pioneer transcription factor PHA-4” Science, 348 (6241): 1372-1376. [doi: 10.1126/science.aab1223]
  • Burger A, Walczak AM, and Wolynes PG, (2012) “Influence of Decoys on the Noise and Dynamics of Gene Expression” Physical Review E, 86, 4. [doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.041920]
  • Burger A, Walczak AM, and Wolynes PG, (2010) “Abduction and Asylum in the Lives of Transcription Factors” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, 9:4016-4021. [doi: 10.1073/pnas.0915138107]

Degrees

Ph.D. in Physics, University of California, San Diego; BS in Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Classes Taught

  • Algebra Based Physics I
  • Algebra Based Physics II
  • Calculus Based Physics I
  • Calculus Based Physics II
  • Waves & Modern Physics
  • Quantum Mechanics
  • Advanced Electromagnetism
  • Thermodynamics & Kinetics

Areas of Expertise

  • Theoretical Biological Physics
  • Computational Systems Biology
  • Bioinformatics
  • Computational Radiation Oncology