Shelley L. Berger

With appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Shelley L. Berger is the Daniel S. Och University Professor, a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, and a Professor of Biology at University of Pennsylvania. Berger also founded and directs the Penn Epigenetics Program. Berger works at the intersection of the ever-evolving fields of genetics, epigenetics, genomics, cell and developmental biology to understand the molecular basis of genome regulation. In the nucleus of eukaryotic organisms, long strands of nuclear DNA are wound around packaging proteins, called histones, into a structure known as chromatin, akin to the way thread is organized around a spool. Berger’s research focuses on understanding how epigenetic modifications, or modifications that do not change the fundamental DNA sequence, lead to changes in gene expression.

The field of epigenetics is still developing, and is exerting an increasingly profound impact on medicine because of its potential explanatory power in development and disease. Berger’s research has helped to establish the prevailing view that epigenetic modifications of histone proteins have widespread effects, regulating transcription of genes, DNA replication during cell division, repair of DNA mutations as a result of DNA damage, and other processes. Using deep knowledge to navigate the broad interdisciplinary landscape, Berger seeks—and frequently finds—new knowledge that can help develop cures for currently intractable cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Berger has received numerous accolades for her research, including the Ellison Foundation Senior Scholar Award, the NIH Shannon Award, the ACS Junior Faculty Research Award, and an NIH predoctoral fellowship. In addition to her American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership, she is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her publications, numbering over 150, appear in prominent journals including Biochemistry, Cell, and Nature.