University of Missouri

Jan. 28, 2019

10th annual Agroforestry Symposium focuses on entrepreneurship in research

Rob Riedel from Wild Ozark Ginseng Farm introduces their products at the Agroforestry Symposium on Jan. 26, 2017  | photo by Jinghong Chen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Farmers, scientists and tree experts, from field to forest, will bring their work inside this Wednesday and Thursday to hear how research can improve all of their livelihoods. The 10th annual University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry Symposium is set to take place Jan. 30-31 at the Bond Life Sciences Center on the University of Missouri’s campus. The two-day event will focus on innovation and…

Jan. 3, 2019

#IAmScience Julie Gauthier

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Many might agree that their sex education was not taught well in school. This poorly taught education inspired junior Julie Gauthier to look deeper medicine and sexually transmitted diseases, and it spurred her interest in science. “My high school had an uninformed sex education curriculum,” Gauthier said. “It was not based in science as much as I thought it should be, so when I got here I did a lot of personal research on sex health. Scientists are curious, and I was curious on the subject.” While Gauthier’s initial interest was in science surrounding health, her current research…

Dec. 14, 2018

Closure comes with final defense

Ph.D. dissertation wraps up student career. By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Ending your career as a student is a whirlwind of emotion. Ph.D. student Ben Spears soon will be saying his final goodbyes to his lab after he gave his final presentation earlier this month. Spears spent the past six years in Walter Gassmann’s lab in Bond LSC, and he has been a student for almost all of his life. “You know it is kind of surreal,” Spears said. “It’s hard to describe. I mean, I don’t know what it is like to not be a…

Dec. 11, 2018

Stacey named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

By Roger Meissen, Bond LSC Science and invention are both about discovering the possibilities in something. Those possibilities can create something new that improves the lives of people and advances our understanding of the world. It’s no surprise that Gary Stacey, a Bond Life Sciences Center primary investigator, is being recognized this year as one of 148 academic fellows by the National Academy of Inventors. “I am very proud to welcome another class of outstanding NAI Fellows, whose collective achievements have helped shape the future and who each day work to improve our world,” said Paul R.

Dec. 7, 2018

#IAmScience Shawn Abrahams

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC “Eccentric” is generally a word you do not want to use for a future boss. But that’s what led Shawn Abrahams to the Chris Pires’ lab at Bond LSC. Abrahams first met Pires at the Botany 2013 conference in New Orleans. “If you have ever met Chris before you know he is full of advice. At the time Chris told me about his expectations for grad students, how many papers you should have to be successful and that you should always be considering your 10-year plan,” Abrahams said. “I appreciated it as…

Nov. 30, 2018

#IAmScience Trupti Joshi

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Juggling research, teaching, collaborative meetings, grant writing, and training postdocs and students is no problem for Trupti Joshi. That array of responsibilities is just part of the job for a Bond LSC researcher focused on bioinformatics, an area that connects so many types of science by collecting and analyzing genetic data. “Bioinformatics is a very interdisciplinary science that marries the wet and the dry labs,” Joshi said. “It applies software tools and computational techniques from computer science, engineering, mathematics and statistics towards efficient ways to analyze, integrate and mine large-scale genomics and…

Nov. 15, 2018

#IAmScience Sarah Unruh

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Orchids are just weird. No, like really weird, even bizarre. But sixth-year biological sciences Ph.D. student Sarah Unruh likes bizarre things. “Name me a plant rule and I can tell you how orchids have broken them,” Unruh said. “Not all of them have leaves, a lot grow on top of trees and some grow underground not requiring photosynthesis, but one of weirdest characteristics is that their seeds are very small and they don’t have a lot of the nutrition to get the plant started.” That last property has led Unruh to spend…

Nov. 12, 2018

#IAmScience Nikita Gudekar

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC You’ve probably seen TV in shows like Law & Order or CSI and not viewed them as career inspiration. But for graduate student Nikita Gudekar, all she could think about was the science behind their techniques. As a child, Gudekar thought she could use the scientific techniques to catch the criminals, and as she grew up that initial goal evolved into working in the lab of Michael Petris in Bond LSC. Gudekar, originally from Mumbai, India, received her undergraduate study in Mumbai before furthering her education at Mizzou. Gudekar is now a…

Nov. 2, 2018

#IAmScience Monir Shababi

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Research Assistant Professor Monir Shababi and mothers of SMARD children started out as friends on Facebook. Now, they’re friends for a lifetime. It was an unexpected turn for someone who spends most of her professional life in a lab. SMARD1 is an acronym for the rare genetic neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress, which has been the focus of Shababi’s research for the past five years. While it shares part of its name with the better known spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the disease-causing gene is not the same. Both diseases…

Oct. 26, 2018

#IAmScience Will Costigan

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC When Will Costigan came to MU he knew he wanted to do research, but wasn’t sure what exactly. Costigan joined Freshman Research in Plant Sciences (FRIPS) the first moment he could his freshman year to explore his research options. “When I started, I didn’t think I was interested in plants very much,” Costigan said. “But after getting some experience working in the lab, I found that plants are more important and complex than I could’ve imagined.” So, he started working in Scott Peck’s lab a year ago, earlier than many of his…

Oct. 19, 2018

#IAmScience Amanda Blythe

 By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC You could credit a high school career fair to Amanda Blythe’s early success or simply luck. Either way, Blythe was younger than most when her research was first published. “I found a program at Washington University over the summer before my senior year of high school,” Blythe said. “They gave me a research project at the med school focusing on a rare genetic bone disorder. I did a lot of genetic sequencing looking for mutations, which led me to discovering a novel mutation, and we ended up publishing the data. It was…

Oct. 15, 2018

New faculty eager to enhance collaborative mission at Bond LSC

Wes Warren (left), Bing Yang (middle) and Ron Mittler (right) recently joined Bond LSC as primary investigators. | photos by Erica Overfelt and Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC Like with any family, a new addition brings possibility and excitement. For Bond LSC, three new faculty promise to enrich research at the University of Missouri by working together across disciplines. Ron Mittler, Wes Warren and Bing Yang all joined Bond LSC recently to continue their research careers. Bond LSC Interim Director Walter Gassmann said these strategic hires are years in the making and represent…