About James M. Berger's Work
Our work focuses on energy coupling, assembly mechanics, and biological regulation of molecular machines using a combination of hybrid structural, bulk biochemical, and single-molecule methods. We have a long-standing interest in understanding how type II topoisomerases are inhibited by anti-cancer and antibacterial agents, how resistance to topoisomerase poisons impacts enzyme function, and how topoisomerase-DNA cleavage complexes stabilized by anti-topoisomerase drugs lead inappropriate DNA repair and genetic instabilities.
Awards and Achievements
Whitehead Fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1995)
David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (1999)
American Chemical Society Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (2006)
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Schering Plough Research Institute Scientific Achievement Award (2006)
David A. Shirley Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2008)
Walter and Ruth Schubert Family Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2008-2013)
National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (2011)
Elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2012)
Elected into the National Academy of Sciences (2013)