Stanford University, Stanford, CA B.S., M.S. 06/80 Chemistry
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Ph.D. 06/85 Chemistry
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Postdoctoral 10/05-8/06 Biophysics
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Berg’s research focuses the relationships between the structures and functions of biological molecules. He has made major contributions to understanding how zinc-containing proteins bind to the genetic material DNA or RNA and regulate gene activity. His work, and that of others in the field, has led to the design of metal-containing proteins that control the activity of specific genes. These tailored proteins are valuable tools for basic research on gene function, and such proteins could one day have medical applications in regulating genes involved in diseases, as well. Dr. Berg has also made contributions to our understanding of systems that target proteins to specific compartments within cells and to the use of sequence databases for predicting aspects of protein structure and function. He is currently using computational methods to estimate binding free energies for peptides interacting with targeting receptors.