Elizabeth (Beth) Burton

Beth grew up about 30 minutes outside of Philly (Go Birds!) in Wilmington, Delaware, where she fell in love with both science and music at a young age. Luckily, she was able to study both at Gettysburg College, where, in 2018, she received her B.S. in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and her B.A in Music. She then returned to Philadelphia to conduct her doctoral research at The University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Struan Grant and the late Casey Brown. Her doctoral thesis aimed to elucidate the functional role of an Alzheimer's disease GWAS-associated variant/enhancer pair in the context of microglia. After successfully defending her thesis, she started at the Broad Institute as a postdoctoral associate in October 2024 under the joint mentorship of Melina Claussnitzer and JT Neal, where she studies how genetic perturbations affect adipocyte function using optical pooled screening techniques. In her free time, you can find Beth snuggling with her pet rabbit, Dr. Penguin, crocheting gigantic blankets, cheering on her Philadelphia sports teams, and singing with the MIT Concert Choir.

Beth also hopes to one day be a PI of her own lab, focusing her research on polygenic human disease and variant-to-function studies!