Mandy Hsieh's photograph of a Japanese Sea Nettle takes the cover of the 2024 UCR Undergraduate Research Journal. Mandy also published her work on addressing the significance of crowding on the equilibrium protein kinetics. Her research, in collaboration with Professor Jiayu Liao and his students, Chuchu Liu and Gagan Mannur, looked at the potential differences in the dissociation equilibrium constant from FRET analysis of CyPet-SUMO1 and YPet-Ubc9 in the presence of high concentrations of bovine serum albumin. The results showed crowding can increase the dissociation constant by a factor of three. Her exciting preliminary work opens the door for more extensive research to better understand this phenomenon.  

To learn more check out the 2024 UCR Undergraduate Research Journal.