Bradley E. Bernstein is a professor in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is also an Institute Member at the Broad Institute, where he co-directs the Epigenomics Program. Bernstein’s research focuses on epigenetics - changes in gene activity…
more governed by influences outside the genes themselves - and specifically how modifications to the protein scaffold called chromatin contribute to mammalian development and human cancer. His work is notable for the characterization of epigenetic mechanisms that underlie a stem cells’ ability to give rise to almost any kind of cell, and for the identification of gene switches (‘enhancers’) in the human genome that coincide with DNA sequence variants associated with common diseases. His laboratory has also defined epigenetic mechanisms that mediate malignant transformation, tumor propagation and drug resistance. After receiving his M.D. and Ph.D., Bernstein completed a residency in clinical pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He carried out postdoctoral research at Harvard University with Stuart Schreiber and joined the faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2005. Bernstein’s honors and awards include a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Physicians, a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a junior faculty award from the Culpeper Foundation, and an Early Career Scientist award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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