Jonathan S. Berg

I recently joined the Adult and Cancer Genetics group at UNC after completing the residency program in Clinical Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. This unique four-year program was aimed at providing training broadly across all facets of Clinical Genetics and I thus have equal experience in both Pediatric and Adult genetics. In the Cancer Genetics Clinic I will be primarily involved in the evaluation of individuals with a strong family history of cancer, in the hopes that we can identify the primary genetic etiology for their family's cancer susceptibility and provide additional information that will help guide the management of these individuals. I will also see patients with a wide range of conditions in the Adult Genetics Clinic.

My current research interests involve the translation of modern genetic diagnostic technologies to improved patient care. Cancer is an ideal model system for this goal, since as a whole cancer is quite prevalent and there are clearly genetic underpinnings to most types of cancer (despite the rarity of true familial cancer syndromes). In collaboration with other members of the UNC Clinical Cancer Genetics group, I am involved in a project aimed at determining a genetic etiology in families for whom clinical genetic testing has failed to explain an apparent Mendelian cancer susceptibility. I am also assuming the position of Principal Investigator for the Carolina-Georgia Center of the Cancer Genetics Network funded by the National Cancer Institute, a multicenter study aimed at developing a registry of cancer patients and their family members in order to facilitate scientific investigations.

In addition to cancer-related interests, I hope to pursue additional lines of clinical/translational investigation into the use of diagnostic and predictive testing in adult medicine subspecialties, with the primary goal of determining the clinical utility and cost-benefit ratio of predictive genetic testing in order to ensure that this technology is used in an evidence-based fashion.

1993 Phi Beta Kappa, Emory University
2002 Alpha Omega Alpha, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2009 Richard King Trainee Award for Best Publication in Genetics in Medicine