Biography
Christin E. Burd, PhD, is a Professor at The Ohio State University, with appointments in both the Department of Molecular Genetics and the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. She leads a research program focused on understanding the biological processes that contribute to cancer and aging.
Dr. Burd grew up in northeast Ohio and graduated from Cleveland Heights High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, with a minor in Computer Information Systems, from Miami University, and went on to complete her PhD in Cell Biology at the University of Cincinnati. There, she studied how hormones influence prostate cancer growth. She continued her training as a postdoc at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she investigated how cells regulate growth and division in the context of viral infection, cancer, and aging.
Since joining Ohio State’s faculty in 2013, Dr. Burd has built a highly collaborative research program that brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines and institutions. Her work focuses on uncovering the early events in melanoma development and understanding how environmental, medical, and social factors influence how quickly the body ages. She has also contributed to efforts to identify therapies that target harmful aging cells.
Dr. Burd has authored more than 80 scientific publications, and her work has been supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Federation for Aging Research, the Glenn Foundation, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Falk Medical Research Trust, and Pelotonia. Her research has led to multiple patent applications and licensed technologies. She has received numerous honors, including The Ohio State University’s Early- and Mid-Career Distinguished Scholar Awards, a Commercialization Achievement Award, the Pan-American Society for Pigment Cell Research Career Achievement Award, and the 2026 Harlan Hatcher Distinguished Faculty Award. In 2016, she was the first recipient in Ohio of the Damon Runyon–Rachleff Innovation Award.
In addition to her research, Dr. Burd is a dedicated educator. She received The Ohio State University’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching—its highest teaching honor—in 2023.
Outside of work, Dr. Burd enjoys spending time in nature, gardening, tackling home renovation projects, solving puzzles, and being with her family. She spends most of her days not far from her husband, Dr. Craig Burd—a fellow Molecular Genetics faculty member—and most of her evenings learning the latest tech tricks from her teenage son, Tim.