Dr. Kenneth I. Berns, 85, a giant in gene therapy research, died Friday, January 26, 2024, in Gainesville, FL. He was buried at Prairie Creek, FL in a simple green service. A Celebration of Life was held on March 8, 2024, at the Oak Hammock continuing care retirement community at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Ken was born on June 14, 1938, in Cleveland, OH.
Ken prepared at Shaker Heights High School in Shaker Heights, OH, graduating in 1956. From 1956 to 1959, he attended Harvard College and was a member of Leverett House. Ken left Harvard to enter the accelerated Year I program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1960 and earned his Ph.D. (1964) and MD (1966) from Johns Hopkins. Ken was a National Merit Scholar, a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator, and a National Institute of Health (NIH) Merit Award recipient, among many other accolades.
Ken’s early career focused on basic research in virology, specifically on the genetic structure of adeno-associated viruses (AAV). Ken published more than 140 scientific papers by delineating various aspects of the basic molecular biology of AAV. These include characterization of the dual nature of the AAV life cycle—productive replication and latent infection; documentation of the single-stranded nature of the AAV genome; elucidation of the mechanism of AAV DNA replication and viral gene expression; characterization of AAV inverted terminal repeats; determination of the complete nucleotide sequence of the AAV2 genome; discovery of site-specific integration of the AAV2 genome into human chromosome 19; and, in collaboration with Nicholas Muzyczka’s laboratory, documentation of rescue of the AAV genome from recombinant plasmid DNA and generation of the first AAV vector. These seminal discoveries formed the basis of the field of molecular medicine using gene therapy with AAV vectors. The use of AAV vectors has been transformative in the management of severe and previously fatal conditions and will continue to impact medical practice in the future.
After serving as a Staff Fellow and US Public Health Services Officer at NIH in Washington, Ken returned in 1970 to Johns Hopkins as a faculty member in the microbiology department at the medical school. Then, in 1976, he moved to the University of Florida, as Chair of the Department of Immunology and Medical Microbiology. After a sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Ken in 1984 accepted an appointment as the R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor and Chairman of the Microbiology Department at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Fourteen years later he returned to the University of Florida as Folke H. Peterson Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice-President of the Health Sciences Center, where he played a pivotal role in fostering biomedical research. He served in 2002 as President of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Then, in 2003, returning (again) to the University of Florida, Ken became Head of the University’s Genetics Institute, his last position before retirement. After retirement in 2012, Ken was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University’s College of Medicine. Certainly, Ken’s leadership was a guiding light for these academic health centers … and as he shaped the career of countless physician scientists, Ken was beloved by his colleagues and recognized by his students as an exceptional teacher and mentor. Indeed, Ken’s greatest satisfaction came from helping others make discoveries in science.
Ken and his wife, Laura Berns, Ph.D., established the Genetics Institute Endowment in 2006 to support teaching, research and programs that enhance the Institute’s mission to advance genetics for the benefit of patients, as well as the Ken and Laura Berns Award for Excellence in Genetics in 2015 to recognize graduate students for significant contributions in genetics and genomics.
Ken served on numerous national committees both before and after his retirement, including the National Science Advisory Committee for Biosecurity, the US National Committee on Poliovirus Containment, the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
Ken was a long-time member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and served as ASM President (1997). He was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and served on the Academy Board of Governors from 2003-2009. He served as President of the American Society for Virology for academic year 1988-1989, and in 2000, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ken was elected to the National Academy of Science (1995) and the National Academy of Medicine (1992). Although Ken’s career was punctuated with numerous honors, it was his friendships that he valued most.
Ken is survived by his wife, Laura Berns, and his sister, Karen Newborn, as well as by his son Jonathan Berns, his daughter Deborah Lingwood, and his two granddaughters, Cassandra and Alexandra Berns.
Instead of flowers, please send a donation in his memory to the Oak Hammock Scholarship Fund, the Harn Museum of Art, or the Ken Berns Graduate Student Opportunity Fund in Medical Genetics and Microbiology at UF. Please visit his memorial page at: www.williamsthomasfuneralhome.com.
Modified with additions to what was published in the Gainesville Sun on February 2, 2024, by the American Society for Microbiology on February 8, 2024, and elsewhere.
