Bethany A. Buck

Bethany A. Buck began her education at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, where she graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Chemistry. Her doctoral work was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Gianluigi Veglia at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she cultivated her interests in biophysical chemistry and structural biology by utilizing solution and solid-state NMR to characterize the structure, function and membrane topology of transmembrane proteins. After receiving her Ph.D. in 2005, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Peter E. Wright at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. During her postdoctoral training, she combined biochemical and structural elucidation methodologies to expand our understanding of nucleic acid recognition by zinc finger proteins. Of particular note, Bethany elucidated the first structure of a zinc finger protein bound to methylated DNA, illuminating the first molecular details for zinc finger recognition of this essential epigenetic mark. For this important work, Bethany was supported by an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2011, Bethany began as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. The research in her independent laboratory is focused on utilizing parallel in vitro biophysical/biochemical and in cell genomics approaches to delineate the mechanisms by which the ZBTB family of methyl-CpG binding proteins (MBPs) recognize their cognate DNA and protein targets to regulate transcription in the cancerous state. As evidence for the potential and impact of this research, Bethany was awarded a prestigious American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant in 2014. In addition to her research recognitions, Bethany has been awarded several mentoring and teaching awards including a Career Services Faculty Recognition Award and a Sigma Chi Fraternity Outstanding Faculty Award. Currently, Bethany is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Associate Member of the Huntsman Cancer Institute Cancer Center, and as of February 2021, Director of the Biological Chemistry PhD Program.