PhD in Chemistry, Harvard University
412-624-1223
jberg@pitt.edu
Office: 825 MURD
Lab Website
Research Summary
My research focuses on the relationships between the structures and functions of biological molecules. I have made major contributions to understanding how zinc-containing proteins bind to the genetic material DNA or RNA and regulate gene activity. My 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. I have 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. I am currently using computational methods to estimate binding free energies for peptides interacting with targeting receptors.
Specific interactions between macromolecules are key to essentially all biological processes. Our research program has two related goals. The first is to understand the structural and chemical bases by which these specific interactions occur. The second is to understand why, biologically and evolutionarily, particular interactions have the strengths that they do. Systems of particular interest involve peroxisomal protein targeting and protein and nucleic acid interactions involving zinc-binding domains. I am Director of the Institute of Personalized Medicine, Associate Vice Chancellor for Science Strategy and Planning in the Health Sciences, and Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh.