Catherine Bue-Hepner

Catherine Bue-Hepner joined the chemistry department at Connecticut College in 2023, and previously taught at Worcester State University from 2013-2023 in both the chemistry and biology departments. Her research focuses on protein transport between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi complex of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a single celled eukaryote with a highly conserved secretory system. Erv26p is a small transmembrane protein that is known to act as a cargo sorting adaptor for proteins cotranslationally inserted into the ER and folded there before being delivered to their location of function. 

Her research specifically works to determine the molecular mechanism of Erv26p’s protein delivery function, and so far has isolated a luminal loop as the cargo binding domain, the cytosolic C-terminal tail as the vesicle coat binding domain, and a cytosolic loop as a homodimerization domain. This research is performed using standard molecular biology techniques, such as standard PCR, yeast and bacterial transformation, gene sequencing and site-directed mutagenesis PCR to make specific gene mutations. Understanding how this particular protein functions as a delivery protein can be adapted to understanding how a wider variety of proteins are transported from the ER to their final destinations, which is required for proper cell function.

Dr Bue-Hepner has taught various levels of molecular biology courses, general chemistry and biochemistry, as well as freshman and senior seminars.