So Young Bae of the Tolan Lab was selected as the winner of the 2023 Denton Award for her master’s research thesis in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCBB) titled “Mode of Substrate Binding and Specificity for Ketohexokinase across Isozymes Implies an Induced-Fit Mechanism.” This award is given for excellence in scholarship and research accomplishment during a master’s thesis under the mentorship of a faculty member of the Department of Biology.
So Young received her BA from Boston University where she studied Biology. Before her admission to the MCBB master’s program in 2022, she worked as a staff research assistant in the Tolan lab and was critical in melding the CLIA-approved HFI laboratory into the Clinical Testing Laboratory that tested over two million samples during the coronavirus pandemic. During this time, she became interested in structural biology and learned X-ray crystallography through working with the Allen laboratory in the Chemistry department. So Young’s master’s research focused on the conformational changes important to catalysis in the first enzyme in the metabolism of fructose, ketohexokinase. She’s currently a PhD student in the MCBB program.
Congratulations, So Young!