Bond LSC News
July 27, 2018
#IAmScience Gabriela Akrap
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Being the youngest person in the lab has opened the eyes of this English, German and Croatian speaking undergrad. Research was not always on senior Gabriela Akrap’s mind, until Ruthie Angelovici told her to apply for REU (Research Experience for undergrads). Being accepted started two months in Angelovici’s lab this summer that expanded Akrap’s science experience. Akrap first was intimidated at first since she was younger that others in the lab, but soon came to feel comfortable. “There’s so much information and so many different projects going on…
July 25, 2018
A shift in focus: Lorson moves basic research to drug development
By Roger Meissen & Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC It takes a lot to move a discovery from lab bench to an application that can provide therapeutic benefits to those suffering from disease. Bond LSC’s Chris Lorson is making moves to bridge that gap with the start of Shift Pharmaceuticals. With its formation in March 2017, Lorson adds co-founder and Chief Science Officer of the company to his list of titles that include Bond LSC investigator, professor of veterinary pathobiology and associate dean for research and graduate studies. Shift Pharmaceuticals builds off of years of progress the Lorson Lab has…
July 23, 2018
BPA research brings clarity to chemical’s influence on genes
Cheryl Rosenfeld recently worked with the FDA to study genetic effects of BPA. Her results were published in Epigenetics in July 2018. photo by Roger Meissen | Bond LSC By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC After a decade of work, Cheryl Rosenfeld is no stranger to bisphenol A (BPA), and her most recent study challenges the dangers posed by developmental exposure the chemical. Her results continue to raise concerns about how BPA can potentially turn on or off genes in animals and subsequent effects on that early exposure can have on the development and brains of…
July 20, 2018
#IAmScience K’Imani Davis
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC From hate to passion. One class changed senior K’Imani Davis’s mind, who is now going into her senior year working in the Anand Chandrasekhar lab at Bond LSC. “I used to actually hate science, and when I say hate, I hated it,” Davis said. “Senior year of high school I took AP Bio, I loved it. I don’t know what happened, but I started to try and I liked the subject.” After Davis’s change of heart, she decided to start out at MU as a biology major, and she is now going…
July 11, 2018
#IAmScience Katalin Toth
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC A chance encounter brought Katalin Toth to Mizzou. The postdoctoral fellow, first heard about MU when Gary Stacey visited University of Munich. Toth heard of a position opening up in his lab. She has now been in the Stacey Lab for six years. “I knew his work was important and well known,” Toth said. “You can almost directly apply what you find on soybeans to agriculture.” Science has led Toth from the mountains of Slovakia where she did her masters to Hungary for her Ph.D. and Germany for research. Missouri ended up…
July 6, 2018
Bond LSC offers ample research opportunities for undergrads
IMSD Director Brian Booton poses with the 2018 IMSD fellows. photo by Roger Meissen | Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond LSC Research at the undergraduate level offers more than meets the eye. With students from every year of their undergraduate careers working in Bond LSC, it’s a great opportunity to acquire skills and experience. Linda Blockus, head of the Undergraduate Research office in 150 Bond LSC, advises students to get started early and be proactive. “I encourage students who are interested in research to talk to people and network,” Blockus said. “Talk to your professors, advisors…
June 29, 2018
#IAmScience David Porciani
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC David Porciani was inspired into a science career. Growing up along the Mediterranean Sea in Livorno, Italy, Porciani was fascinated with all different types of science, until he met two high school mentors. “They inspired me,” said Porciani, who now works in the Burke Lab at Bond LSC. “They were both chemistry teachers, and I have always been fascinated with studying chemistry in biological systems.” One of his mentors words to him stuck with him and shape how he decides what direction to explore. “He said try to ask yourself not obvious…
June 22, 2018
Ha Duong #IAmScience
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC 8,124 miles. That’s how far Ph.D. student Ha Duong traveled from home to work in the Stacey Lab at Bond LSC. Duong came from her home in Vietnam where she studied plant sciences at Hanoi University of Agriculture. A chance encounter brought her to MU. “Back in my last year of undergrad, a professor from MU came and gave a talk,” Duong said. “I thought about MU. I then received a fellowship then chose here. I got it so it is destiny.” With some questionable looks from her mother when she first…
June 17, 2018
A sound generational difference
Scientists are seeing changes in vocal patterns in the grandoffspring of California mice exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA. Photo by Roger Meissen | Bond LSC Endocrine disruptors alter baby mice calls generations later By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC The sounds can seem like a mix between a bird tweet and a high-pitched scream to us, but these vocalizations that baby California mice make are essential to how they communicate with their parents and siblings. Exposure of grandparent mice to bisphenol A (BPA) and related endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may alter that communication in…
June 15, 2018
Rowan Karvas #IAmScience
Rowan Karvas, a Ph.D candidate at Mizzou, works in the Roberts Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Erica Overfelt, Bond LSC By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Answering the unsolved questions is a lifetime commitment for fifth year Ph.D. candidate Rowan Karvas in the Roberts Lab at Bond LSC and Laura Schulz’s lab at the medical school in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department. Originally from St. Louis, Karvas came to Mizzou and found her keen for science through her undergrad research working on adult muscle cells, but it wasn’t until she became a technician in a…
June 7, 2018
Stephanie Scott #IAmScience
Stephanie Scott, a biochemistry major, works in the Thelen Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center Students choose colleges for a number of reasons: location, price, programs offered. Stephanie Scott was just a kid the first time she stepped onto Mizzou’s campus, and she knew it was the school for her. “We took a field trip, and I fell in love with the place because it had three swimming pools,” Scott said. While that’s not a typical selling point for places of higher education, it…
May 25, 2018
Andrea Ravelo #IAmScience
Andrea Ravelo, a Ph.D. candidate in Chris Pires’ lab. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center Mizzou is a family tradition for some. It’s passed down from generation to generation of Tigers as more and more family members join the lineage of “True Sons and Daughters.” Andrea Ravelo, a Ph.D. candidate in Chris Pires’ Lab at Bond LSC, came to Mizzou to continue that trend. “My parents went to Mizzou as graduate students when I was a baby,” Ravelo said. “After I finished my undergraduate degree, I decided…