Bradley Bernstein

Bradley Bernstein
Born1970 (1970)
Scientific career
FieldsEpigenomics, developmental biology and cancer
InstitutionsDana–Farber Cancer Institute, Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School

Bradley E. Bernstein is a biologist and Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and the Director of the Broad Institute's Gene Regulation Observatory.[1] He is known for contributions to the fields of epigenetics and cancer biology.

Education

Bernstein received his B.S. in physics from Yale University, and his Ph.D. and M.D. from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Career and research

Early career

Bernstein completed his residency in clinical pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and his post-doctoral research in Stuart Schreiber’s lab at Harvard Chemistry. Together with Stuart Schreiber and Eric Lander (Broad Institute), Bernstein characterized the epigenetic landscape in pluripotent embryonic stem cells, leading to the first characterization of bivalent chromatin.[2]

Research

Bernstein joined the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2005. In 2009, he and Alex Meissner launched the Epigenomics Program at the Broad Institute. In 2021, he moved to the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute as Chair of Cancer Biology.

Research in the Bernstein laboratory focuses on epigenetics and how changes in gene activity, as opposed to gene sequence, guide development and lead to disease. The lab uses high-throughput genomic technologies to study how chromatin controls gene activity in different contexts. Bernstein's major contributions include ChIP-seq technology, now the standard for mapping chromatin and protein-DNA interactions in mammalian cells,[3] the characterization of bivalent chromatin[2] that poises developmental genes for alternate fates in development, and the identification of epigenetic defects that cause brain tumors and treatment failures.[4][5][6][7] He also directs epigenome mapping centers for ENCODE and (formerly) the NIH Epigenomics project at the Broad Institute.

Recognition

Bernstein received an Early Career Scientist award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2009), the Paul Marks prize for Cancer Research (2015),[8] and an NIH Pioneer award (2016).[9] He holds the Richard and Nancy Lubin Family Chair at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Bernstein also serves on the editorial board of Science.

Bernstein was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Epigenomics". Broadinstitute.org. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b Bernstein, Bradley E.; Mikkelsen, Tarjei S.; Xie, Xiaohui; Kamal, Michael; Huebert, Dana J.; Cuff, James; Fry, Ben; Meissner, Alex; Wernig, Marius; Plath, Kathrin; Jaenisch, Rudolf; Wagschal, Alexandre; Feil, Robert; Schreiber, Stuart L.; Lander, Eric S. (2006). "A Bivalent Chromatin Structure Marks Key Developmental Genes in Embryonic Stem Cells". Cell. 125 (2). Elsevier BV: 315–326. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.02.041. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 16630819. S2CID 9993008.
  3. ^ Mikkelsen, Tarjei S.; Ku, Manching; Jaffe, David B.; Issac, Biju; Lieberman, Erez; Giannoukos, Georgia; Alvarez, Pablo; Brockman, William; Kim, Tae-Kyung; Koche, Richard P.; Lee, William; Mendenhall, Eric; O’Donovan, Aisling; Presser, Aviva; Russ, Carsten; Xie, Xiaohui; Meissner, Alexander; Wernig, Marius; Jaenisch, Rudolf; Nusbaum, Chad; Lander, Eric S.; Bernstein, Bradley E. (2007-07-01). "Genome-wide maps of chromatin state in pluripotent and lineage-committed cells". Nature. 448 (7153). Springer Nature: 553–560. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..553M. doi:10.1038/nature06008. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 2921165. PMID 17603471.
  4. ^ Patel, A. P.; Tirosh, I.; Trombetta, J. J.; Shalek, A. K.; Gillespie, S. M.; Wakimoto, H.; Cahill, D. P.; Nahed, B. V.; Curry, W. T.; Martuza, R. L.; Louis, D. N.; Rozenblatt-Rosen, O.; Suva, M. L.; Regev, A.; Bernstein, B. E. (2014-06-12). "Single-cell RNA-seq highlights intratumoral heterogeneity in primary glioblastoma". Science. 344 (6190). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): 1396–1401. Bibcode:2014Sci...344.1396P. doi:10.1126/science.1254257. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4123637. PMID 24925914.
  5. ^ Suvà, Mario L.; Rheinbay, Esther; Gillespie, Shawn M.; Patel, Anoop P.; Wakimoto, Hiroaki; Rabkin, Samuel D.; Riggi, Nicolo; Chi, Andrew S.; Cahill, Daniel P.; Nahed, Brian V.; Curry, William T.; Martuza, Robert L.; Rivera, Miguel N.; Rossetti, Nikki; Kasif, Simon; Beik, Samantha; Kadri, Sabah; Tirosh, Itay; Wortman, Ivo; Shalek, Alex K.; Rozenblatt-Rosen, Orit; Regev, Aviv; Louis, David N.; Bernstein, Bradley E. (2014). "Reconstructing and Reprogramming the Tumor-Propagating Potential of Glioblastoma Stem-like Cells". Cell. 157 (3). Elsevier BV: 580–594. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.030. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 4004670. PMID 24726434.
  6. ^ Flavahan, William A.; Drier, Yotam; Liau, Brian B.; Gillespie, Shawn M.; Venteicher, Andrew S.; Stemmer-Rachamimov, Anat O.; Suvà, Mario L.; Bernstein, Bradley E. (2015-12-23). "Insulator dysfunction and oncogene activation in IDH mutant gliomas" (PDF). Nature. 529 (7584). Springer Nature: 110–114. doi:10.1038/nature16490. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4831574. PMID 26700815.
  7. ^ Kolata, Gina (2015-06-10). "Brain Cancers Reveal Novel Genetic Disruption in DNA". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-07-26.
  8. ^ "Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center". Mskcc.org. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  9. ^ generator, metatags. "Project Information - NIH RePORTER - NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results". projectreporter.nih.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  10. ^ "National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.