Adam Burch, PhD
Teaching Assistant Professor
Office 5W-33
Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27834
phone: 252-744-5439
email: Burchad25@ecu.edu
Teaching
I serve as an instructor for the Molecular Basis of Medicine (MBOM) course for first‑year medical students. This course covers essential biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics concepts assessed by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject exams and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1. In addition, I am the course director for the biochemistry course in the Summer Program for Future Doctors (SPFD). Course content for both MBOM and SPFD is delivered through recorded online lectures followed by live flipped‑classroom sessions.
I also serve as the Co‑director of Case‑Based Learning (CBL), where I help lead the development of CBL sessions for first‑ and second‑year medical students. These sessions aim to integrate foundational science content into a clinical context, allowing students to apply basic science principles to realistic patient scenarios.
Research
My current research focuses on graduate and pre-clinical medical education. In particular, the efficacy of flipped classroom learning in the pre-clinical curriculum and development/implementation of CBL sessions.
Formerly, my graduate research sought to understand the impact of N-linked protein glycosylation on the progression of the pediatric cancer, neuroblastoma (NB). Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology to knockout specific components of the N-glycosylation machinery, we were better able to understand how specific N-glycan modifications/types contributed to or repressed aggressive NB phenotypes.
Select Publications
- Burch AP and Hall MK, Schwalbe RA, Reduction of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-I activity promotes neuroblastoma invasiveness and sensitizes neuroblastoma cells to EGF stimulate proliferation In Vitro. Int. J. Transl Med 2024.
- Hall MK, Burch AP, Schwalbe RA. Functional analysis of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-I knockdown in 2D and 3D neuroblastoma cell cultures. PLoS One. 2021 Nov
- Hall MK, Shajahan A, Burch AP, Hatchett CJ, Azadi P, Schwalbe RA. Limited N-Glycan Processing Impacts Chaperone Expression Patterns, Cell Growth and Cell Invasiveness in Neuroblastoma. Biology (Basel). 2023 Feb
- Hall MK, Shajahan A, Hatchett CJ, Burch AP, Azadi P, Schwalbe RA. Kv3-Expressing Cells Present More Elaborate N-Glycans with Changes in Cytoskeletal Proteins, Neurite Structure and Cell Migration. Crimson Publishers. 2023 July