Education

Merck Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University
Ph.D., Harvard University
B.S., University of Chicago



Research Interests

Catalyst screening and reaction development
Asymmetric synthesis
Fluorinated phosphonates
Mechanism-based enzyme inhibitors
PLP enzymes
Lignan natural products



National/International Leadership

Division Director, NSF Division of Chemistry (2020)
Co-Chair, Gordon Research Conference on Biocatalysis (2018)



Awards and Honors

2016 - Board of Editors - Organic Reactions
2015 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2010 - Inaugural WCCAS, Kickoff Plenary Lecturer, Beijing, China
2008 - Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow
2006 - Visiting Professor, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany
2005 - Visiting Professor, U. de Rouen, Rouen, France
1997-2001 - Alfred P. Sloan Fellow




Selected Publications

Robert A. Swyka & David B. Berkowitz “The In Situ Enzymatic Screening (ISES) Approach to Reaction Discovery and Catalyst Identification” Current Protocols in Chemical Biology, 2017, 9(4), 285-305; DOI: 
Guillaume Malik, Rob Swyka, Virendra Tiwari, Xiang Fei, Greg Applegate, and David B. Berkowitz “A thiocyanopalladation/carbocyclization transformation identified through enzymatic screening: stereocontrolled tandem C–SCN and C–C bond formation” Chem. Sci., 2017, Advance Article; DOI: 
Christopher D. McCune, Matthew L. Beio, Jill M Sturdivant, Roberto de la Salud-Bea, Brendan M. Darnell, and David B. Berkowitz “Synthesis and Deployment of an Elusive Fluorovinyl Cation Equivalent: Access to Quaternary α-(1’-Fluoro)vinyl Amino Acids as Potential PLP Enzyme Inactivators” JACS, 2017, 139, 14077-14089; DOI: 
Xiang Fei; Megan E. Zavorka, Guillaume Malik, Christopher M. Connelly, Richard G. MacDonald,* David B. Berkowitz,* “General Linker Diversification Approach to Bivalent Ligand Assembly: Generation of an Array of Ligands for the Cation Independent Mannose 6-Phosphate Receptor (CI-MPR).” Organic Letters, 2017, 19, 4267-4270; DOI: 
David L. Nelson; Gregory A. Applegate, Matthew L. Beio, Danielle L. Graham, David B. Berkowitz,* “Human Serine Racemase Structure/Activity Relationshp Studies Provide Mechanistic Insight and Point to Position-84 Base as a Hotspot for beta-Elimination Function.” J. Biol. Chem. 2017, 292, 13986-14002; DOI: 
Christopher D. McCune; Su Jing Chan; Matthew; Beio; Weijun Shen; Woo Jin Chung,; Laura Szczesniak; Chou Chai; Shu Qing Koh , Peter T.-H. Wong;* David Berkowitz* “Zipped Synthesis” by Cross-Metathesis Provides a CBS (Cystathionine β-Synthase) Inhibitor that Attenuates Cellular H2S Levels and Reduces Neuronal Infarction in a Rat Ischemic Stroke Model," ACS Central Science 2016, ASAP; DOI: ; featured in Science Daily: ; featured in Medical 麻豆传媒 Today: 
Kannan R. Karukurichi, Xiang Fei, Robert A. Swyka, Sylvain Broussy, Sangeeta Dey, Weijun Shen, Sandip K. Roy, David B. Berkowitz* “Mini-ISES Identifies Promising (Carba)fructopyranose-Based Salens for Asymmetric Catalysis: Tuning Ligand Shape via the Anomeric Effect.” Science Advances 2015, 1(6), e1500066; DOI: 
Gregory A. Applegate and David B. Berkowitz* “Exploiting Dynamic Reductive Kinetic Resolution (DYRKR) in Stereocontrolled Synthesis” Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis 2015, 357, 1619-1632, chosen as a VIP (Very Important Publication) by the editors; DOI: 
Kaushik Panigrahi, Gregory A. Applegate, Guillaume Malik, David B. Berkowitz* “Combining aClostridial Enzyme Exhibiting Unusual Active Site Plasticity with a Remarkably Facile Sigmatropic Rearrangement: Rapid Stereocontrolled Entry into Densely Functionalized Fluorinated Phosphonates for Chemical Biology. J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2015, 137, 3600-3609. DOI: ; featured as a JACS Spotlight: DOI: 
Christopher D. McCune, Matthew L. Beio, Jacob A. Friest, Sandeep Ginotra, David B. Berkowitz* “A Useful Methoxyvinyl Cation Equivalent: a-t-Butyldimethylsilyl-a-methoxyacetaldehyde” Tetrahedron Lett. 2015, 56, 3575-3579 (Special Symposium-In-Print honoring Harry H. Wasserman) DOI: 
Xiang Fei, Thomas Holmes, Julianna Diddle, Lauren Hintz, Dan Delaney, Alex Stock, Danielle Renner, Molly McDevitt, David B. Berkowitz, Juliane K. Soukup “Phosphatase-Inert Glucosamine 6-Phosphate Mimics Serve as Actuators of the glmS Riboswitch” ACS Chemical Biology, 2014, 9;2875-2882;