Helen M. Berman

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Helen M. Berman (born 1943) is the director of the Protein Data Bank[1], “a repository for 3-D structural data of proteins and nucleic acids,” and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University.[2] Dr. Berman has contributed significantly to the understanding of the relationship between the structural properties of biological molecules and their biological functions. Her research focuses primarily on the structures of protein-nucleic acid complexes and the role of water as a mediator in intermolecular interactions.[3]

Dr. Berman also spearheaded the creation of the Nucleic Acid Database in 1991, and was named director of the Protein Data Bank, which was moved to the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RSCB) at Rutgers[4] in 1998. The RCSB is a member of the Worldwide PDB [5] whose mission is to ensure that the PDB archive remains an international resource with uniform data. The PDB is also expanded its territory from archiving biomolecules to structural genomics.[6]

Both Berman’s efforts have greatly helped the scientific community establish methods to collect, archive, and analyze structural data. Her most cited article has 5,006 cites to date:[7]


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[edit] Education

Dr. Berman received her A.B. from Barnard College in 1964. After that, she went to the University of Pittsburgh to study crystallography. Pittsburgh was one of the places in the United States where this was offered as a subject. Berman worked for George A. Jeffrey, a British small-molecule crystallographer, and studied carbohydrate structures. After obtaining her Ph. D in 1967, she stayed on for two more years at the University of Pittsburgh to complete a post-doc.


[edit] Professional career

From 1969 to 1989, Berman worked at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. First as a research associate for Jenny P. Glusker, a Dorothy Hodgkin trainee. Her focus was on nucleic acid crystallography and the interactions between nucleic acids and drugs. Soon after, she developed her own research program and was appointed an independent position at Fox Chase, and progressed to become a Senior Member.

In 1989, Berman moved to Rutgers, where she included nucleic acids in her research program. Berman studies structures such as collagen and started the Nucleic Acid Database (NDB). This led to collaboration with the Protein Data Bank (PDB) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which was an archive of data from crystallographic and NMR experiments that she had helped establish in 1971.

Since 1998, Berman is the Director of the PDB, responsible for managing this international resource used by researchers, scientists, and educators from all kinds of disciplines.

[edit] Community Activities

Helen Berman had held a great number of positions in several comities in the field of crystallography[8]. Among her many activities, she was President of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) in 1988, a member of the Study Section for the National Institutes of Health in 1986 and 1990, and a member of advisory Committee for the Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation.


[edit] Awards

• Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Fellow of the Biophysical Society
• 2000 Distinguished Service Award, Biophysical Society
• 2006 M.J. Buerger Award[9]
• 2007-2009 Distinguished Lecturer, Sigma Xi [10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Helen Berman’s page at the PDB
  2. ^ Rutgers: Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics- Girl Geeks/My Story
  3. ^ Helen Berman’s story at the Rutgers Office for Promotion of Women in Science website
  4. ^ Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics
  5. ^ The worldwide PDB
  6. ^ The structural Genomics Knowledge base
  7. ^ An interview with Helen Berman
  8. ^ Helen Berman’s resume
  9. ^ The M.J Buerger Award website
  10. ^ Helen M. Berman - Rutgers Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department