Dr. Bernal did his undergraduate training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduating in 1997 with degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 2002 after performing work on the development of synthetic methodologies for the construction of complex marine natural products in the laboratory of K. C. Nicolaou. Dr. Bernal then returned to Cambridge, MA to undergo postdoctoral training in chemical biology at Harvard University in the group of Gregory L. Verdine. He then continued his foray into cancer chemical biology in the laboratory of Loren D. Walensky at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He established his laboratory in the Metabolism Branch (now the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch) of the Center for Cancer Research at NCI in 2010 and subsequently moved in 2014 to the Laboratory of Protein Dynamics and Signaling in Frederick, MD. His research focus involves the investigation and manipulation of disease pathways with synthetic molecules.

Cancer Biology, Chemical Biology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Molecular Pharmacology