Who: I am a Utah native who loves hiking, dungeon mastering, and reading. I’m a member of the Marching Utes and play clarinet and saxophone.
My scientific/engineering interests: I grew up in a very scientific family, and I always have loved learning new things. I really enjoy learning about how things work from a chemical side. There’s a lot of math, but there’s also a direct application, so I really enjoy the subject.
Academic goals: I am a chemistry major and an aspiring pre-med student. I plan to continue in my ACCESS lab and hopefully publish. After I get an Honors BS, I plan to go to medical school to pursue my dream job.
Career goals: I want to go into pediatrics, specifically into oncology. I hope to learn from all aspects in my undergraduate to help build me into an amazing doctor that helps save children.
In order to define cellular function, access to different genomic regions is regulated by the addition of reversable chemical modifications to the DNA or histone proteins, defined as epigenetic modifications. One essential epigenetic modification is DNA methylation, which plays an important role in regulating gene transcription. DNA methylation in gene promoters can be recognized by specific transcription factors called methyl-CpG binding proteins (MBPs) that regulate downstream transcription. My project focuses on one member of the zinc finger (ZF) family of MBPs, ZBTB38. ZBTB38 has been found to have N- and C-terminal sets of ZFs that can each bind methylated DNA. While a structure for the C-terminal ZFs in complex with methylated DNA has been determined, the N-terminal ZFs have been more challenging due to a long linker region separating the first two ZFs. The goal of my project is to clone a protein construct of the N-terminal ZF domain with a shortened linker region that can then be overexpressed in E. coli, purified, and characterized for DNA binding capabilities. Initial attempts to PCR clone this protein construct were unsuccessful and require further troubleshooting. After successfully obtaining the desired plasmid, next steps would be to perform a test overexpression of the construct in E coli. If successful, then large-scale E. coli growth and protein purification would be performed. EMSA and solution NMR analyses will then be used to evaluate the ability of this protein to bind DNA. Completing the project will expand understanding for how ZF proteins recognize methylated DNA sequences.