Turkish scientist makes ‘best doctors in US’ list again

Beyazıt Şenbük - ISTANBUL

Dr. Mehmet Furkan Burak, 36, who went to the U.S. as a researcher with the invitation of Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Professor Aziz Sancar, was selected as one of the "best doctors of the year” for 2023.

Burak was named one of the best doctors in the U.S. by Castle Connolly, a well-established health assessment organization, which recognizes only the top six percent of doctors for the list, which was published in Boston Magazine in February.

As a student at Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine, Burak worked as a researcher in Sancar's laboratory for three months in 2007 upon the invitation of the professor, and after graduating from the university, he started working at Harvard University's Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases with Sancar's reference.

Burak, who was accepted to the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School in his senior year, said that he never forgot Sancar's words in his reference letter: "I put him in the top three among all the interns I have worked with so far."

He has been working at Harvard Medical School for nearly 12 years and is currently conducting human trials of his anti-obesity medicine.

“I started at the age of 32 as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, analyzing obesity patients and working in the laboratory to develop treatments for obesity,” Burak said.

"At this stage, we are conducting human trials for the use of a molecule we discovered with our clinical research group in the treatment of obesity. I also teach at two universities as part of a joint program between Harvard and MIT," he added.