University of Missouri

Aug. 11, 2017

Weighty science

Metabolomics center delves into the unknown Emily Kummerfeld | Bond LSC What do you do when you have an unknown substance and need to know what it’s made of? Or what if you know what’s in it, just not how much? Scientists turn to metabolomics to figure out what these pieces are. Lloyd W. Sumner, Director of the Metabolomics Center at MU’s Bond Life Sciences Center, said analyzing a sample is like going to the doctor and having blood drawn to assess what’s happening inside of your body. “Plants can’t tell us what’s going on, animals can’t do that either,…

Aug. 4, 2017

Samuel McInturf #IAmScience

Samuel McInturf, Ph.D. candidate “#IAmScience because it’s fun. You’re paid to work with exotic materials and instruments to solve problems that drive at how life manifests.” Samuel McInturf’s father is an accountant and his mother is an HR director, but somehow he ended up falling in love with science. By the 4th grade he had already asked his parents to buy him a compound microscope. He completed his undergraduate degree in plant biology at University of Nebraska, Lincoln with a minor in biochemistry. Now, he’s finishing up his fifth year pursuing a Ph.D…

Aug. 1, 2017

How one bad seed could take on climate change

By: Samantha Kummerer | Bond LSC It’s no secret that the 21st century continues to set records with the warmest years in earth’s history and rising carbon dioxide and sea levels. These significant changes threaten the planet’s future and already challenge farmers. Mannie Liscum, a Bond LSC investigator, said research in his lab may help address these problems. They accidentally came across a variation of a plant that reveals multiple adaptive traits, including early flowering “A variant that flowers early and has other advantageous traits could be very useful because that variant could be grown in more northern latitudes where…

July 25, 2017

Megan Sheridan #IAmScience

Megan Sheridan, a Ph.D candidate in biochemistry, works in Dr. Michael Robert’s lab. | Photo by Mary Jane Rogers, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because it’s extraordinary knowing that a small step towards a treatment could positively impact someone’s life down the road.” Megan Sheridan doesn’t let anything slow her down. From presenting at the Society for the Study of Reproduction’s Trainee Research Competition last week—and winning first place—to finishing up her thesis while working in Dr. Michael Roberts’ lab, she’s always juggling multiple projects. Sheridan is finishing up a Ph.D…

July 21, 2017

Kevin Kaifer #IAmScience

Kevin Kaifer, a Ph.D candidate who works in Dr. Christian Lorson’s lab. | Photo by Mary Jane Rogers, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because there are people suffering all over the world and this is where I’m most likely to make any kind of an impact.” When he came to MU three years ago, Kevin Kaifer knew he wanted to work in Bond LSC. He felt it was where the best science and collaborations were happening on campus, and everything that he needed for his research – a vivarium, a DNA…

July 20, 2017

A photo worth a field of change

By: Samantha Kummerer | Bond LSC  When you bite into corn-on-the-cob or a burger you probably aren’t thinking about what tiny compounds are entering your body or about how they can be improved. But scientists are. Those tiny compounds are amino acids and serve as the building blocks of protein. They also play a major role in a recent interdisciplinary research project at the Bond Life Science Center. Look no further than crops like corn and soybeans. While widely eaten by both livestock and people worldwide, these plants are deficient in several essential amino acids and it takes a lot…

July 18, 2017

Christopher Garner #IAmScience

Christopher Garner, Ph.D moments before his successful dissertation defense. | Photo by Mary Jane Rogers, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I believe that the collective pursuit of scientific knowledge is what moves us forward as a species.” In the time leading up to Christopher Garner’s dissertation defense, you never would have known if he was nervous. He was confident and composed, and the conference room at Bond LSC was completely filled with his professors, friends and well-wishers. Dr. Walter Gassmann gave a complimentary introduction to the dissertation, saying, “I don’t know…

July 14, 2017

Walter Gassmann #IAmScience

Walter Gassmann, the new Interim Director of Bond LSC. | Photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because science is the best way to solve problems and help people. And the laws of nature write fascinating stories.” Walter Gassmann, the new Interim Director of Bond LSC, has been an important part of the MU science community for more than a decade. He’s a member of the Interdisciplinary Plant Group, a researcher in Bond LSC and a professor in the Division of Plant Sciences within the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural…

July 10, 2017

The gall of it

How bossy insects make submissive plants create curious growths By Samantha Kummerer | Bond LSC They are bumps on leaves, bulges in stems and almost flower-like growths from plant tissue with a striking amount of variety. They are galls. These unnatural growths garnered the curiosity of Jack Schulz for years. While he’s spent 40 years studying topics from Insect elicitors to habitat specialization by plants in Amazonian forests, what he’s really wanted to study was galls. “It’s so weird,” said Schultz, director of the Bond Life Sciences Center. “I’ve always been really curious about how these strange structures form on plants.”…

July 6, 2017

Pigs pave the way for advancements in IVF treatment

New research makes IVF four times more efficient to create pigs like this for genetics research and breeding in labs like that of Randy Prather at MU. | Photo by Nicholas Benner. Research quadruples speed and efficiency to develop embryos  By Samantha Kummerer | Bond LSC What started as a serendipitous discovery is now opening the door for decreasing the costs and risks involved with in vitro fertilization (IVF). And it all started with cultured pig cells. Dr. Michael Roberts’ and Dr. Randall Prather’s laboratories in the University of Missouri work with pigs to research stem…

July 6, 2017

Paige Gruenke #IAmScience

Paige Gruenke, a Ph.D candidate in Dr. Donald Burke’s lab in Bond LSC. | Photo by Mary Jane Rogers, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I am fascinated by life on a molecular level and inspired that my research could positively impact medicine.” As a graduate student in Donald Burke’s lab at Bond LSC, Paige Gruenke explores the role of ribonucleic acid, or RNA. That means her work involves a lot of test tubes. She looks at how specialized RNA molecules, called aptamers, bind tightly and specifically to proteins from HIV…

July 6, 2017

#MeetScienceTwitter

How an MU student helped start a Twitter trend and how social media is advancing science. By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC In the modern age, science isn’t a solitary endeavor. You might be a tweet away from connecting with scientists about their work, as one MU student recently proved. Dalton Ludwick, an MU doctoral student in entomology, helped spur a hashtag trend to connect real scientists with none other than Bill Nye. If you follow any scientists on Twitter, you may have come across the hashtag #BillMeetScienceTwitter while scrolling through your feed. Thousands of scientists on Twitter introduced…