Burt was born in New York City, and after serving as Resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Burt was a full time faculty member for 10 years – first at Harvard Medical School and then the Medical College of Virginia. In 1991, he joined Biogen, including as Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Executive Vice President for Portfolio Strategy and led development efforts for Angiomax (bivalarudin) for anticoagulation during angioplasty, Avonex (interferon beta) for multiple sclerosis, Amevive (alefecept) for psoriasis, and Tysabri (natalizumab) for multiple sclerosis. Burt retired from Biogen in 2007 and was most recently Executive Vice President Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Dyax Corp where he led the successful development of DX2930, a fully human monoclonal antibody inhibitor of plasma kallikrein for the prevention of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema. Dyax was sold to Shire in 2016.
Burt holds a MD degree from the Cornell Medical College in New York.