University of Missouri

May 19, 2023

#IAmScience Natalie Arnold

By Sarah Kiefer Nylon, ribbon and cotton are just some of the materials that make up cosplay costumes that fill convention centers. Natalie Arnold often participates in these conventions, picking new, fictitious characters to bring to life in costume form. She enjoys the imaginative layers that it adds to her work. Arnold has always been a theater kid, more interested in fine arts than math and science. She realized much later that science might be an option for her. “I especially found earth science and atmospheric science extremely fascinating when I was younger,” Arnold said.

May 5, 2023

#IAmScience Samuel Anakpeba-Dinguyella

By Sarah Kiefer Summer break. For most students it’s a time to relax and unwind from school, but for Samuel Anakpeba-Dinguyella, he saw it as an opportunity to exercise his creativity in new and inventive ways. “My mom was washing dishes and I was in the living room. I was just messing around,” Anakpeba-Dinguyella said. “I remember holding a pair of dividers and a compass just trying to take apart the radio in the living room and that’s when I was like, I want to be a scientist. But, that started the angle…

April 28, 2023

#IAmScience Kevin Muñoz Forti

By Sarah Kiefer Barriers in science can come in many different forms, whether it be through the force of a magnetic field, an experiment gone awry or communication between people. Kevin Muñoz Forti makes it a part of his daily work to break down these issues and work towards solutions. Muñoz Forti facilitates a system of communication and outreach in more ways than one through his work at Bond LSC as a Ph.D. candidate. He works in the Gary Weisman lab where he researches nucleotide receptors and how they change the inflammatory…

April 21, 2023

#IAmScience Maggs X

By Sarah Kiefer Musical notes once filled Maggs X’s mind, when they were preparing to be an opera singer and showcased their voice to all who would listen. Now, instead of reading sheet music, X reads the gene expression profiles collected from the organs of Mexican cavefish. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. “I wanted to be an opera singer, but when I got there I was like, this doesn’t really suit me because I wanted to use my mind more intellectually,” said X, a postdoctoral fellow in the Wes Warren…

April 14, 2023

#IAmScience Grant Zane

By Sarah Kiefer Thousands of cells are made into gel-emulsified droplets and are quickly surrounded in a bed of oil — all in a day’s work for Grant Zane. Grant Zane is a research specialist lead at the University of Missouri Genomics Technology Core in Bond LSC where he performs these types of experiments and more. “What made research really fun is essentially not knowing and then being the first one who gets to figure it out,” Zane said. “There’s a question that’s not yet answered.” From researchers on campus to scientists around the country,…

April 12, 2023

MizzouForward hire Ganta paves way for new research on tick-borne diseases at Bond LSC

Roman Ganta, Bond LSC principal investigator and professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Sarah Kiefer Most people don’t find their area of research by contracting a disease, but Roman Ganta did. When Ganta caught malaria in graduate school, the illness plagued him with recurring symptoms for six to seven months. The mosquito-borne disease wasn’t uncommon at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi, India, where he was earning his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and he experienced symptoms every month. Going through this illness…

April 11, 2023

Yang uses CRISPR-Cas9 technology to fight bacterial infections in plants

Bing Yang, a Bond Life Sciences Center researcher and MU professor of plant sciences. | Photo by Josie Heimsoth By Josie Heimsoth | Bond LSC When it comes to making better crops, CRISPR-Cas9 based gene editing have revolutionized plant science with its ability to more precisely and quickly alter plant DNA. But the technology can also aid researchers in finding weaknesses in the enemies of crops like rice. Bing Yang, a Bond Life Sciences Center researcher and MU professor of plant sciences, recently used the genome editing tool to modify bacteria responsible for rice blight, and it…

April 7, 2023

#IAmScience Clement Bagaza

By Sarah Kiefer  Arabidopsis may just look like a small, kelly-green weed to the naked eye, but this plant holds a particular importance in the lab. For first-generation college student, Clement Bagaza, it’s part of why he moved to the United States. Coming from Rwanda, Africa, he found an opportunity to study plants and experience a different lifestyle than the one he would have had back home. He now studies seed amino acid regulation in the Ruthie Angelovici lab at Bond LSC. “When I came here, I didn’t know where to go. I thought working…

April 3, 2023

Gangwani joins Bond LSC to expand neurodegenerative research for Mizzou Forward

Bond Life Sciences principal investigator, Laxman Gangwani. | Photo by Josie Heimsoth, Bond LSC By Josie Heimsoth | Bond LSC Laxman Gangwani had a choice to make in January of last year. His old friend, Chris Lorson had an opportunity at MU that was difficult to pass up. Gangwani and Lorson, principal investigator at Bond Life Sciences Center and professor of veterinary pathobiology, have known each other for more than 20 years while they were post-docs in different labs in Massachusetts. They would attend conferences for families with children diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy across the United…

March 24, 2023

#IAmScience Kristyn Conrad

By Sarah Kiefer Whether it’s on the tennis court or in the lab, Kristyn Conrad keeps a firm grip on her plans for the future. One way she maintains her goal-oriented mindset is in the lab doing cancer research. “This type of work makes me feel amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it, to be honest; it’s what I’ve always wanted to do,” Conrad said. “The main reason I got into research was to do cancer work. Throughout the years, I’ve always wanted to do something that could benefit a lot of people.”…

March 17, 2023

#IAmScience Dario Alavez Mercado

By Sarah Kiefer | Bond LSC With a few clicks and taps on a cellphone, the timeline of a seedling of corn is preserved forever. Dario Alavez Mercado is responsible for this simple yet effective method of recording the growth of corn from seedling to maturity. “I know that only by understanding the things that surround us and trying to solve problems with the help of the scientific method, will we be a society better prepared to face the challenges that will come in the future,” Alavez Mercado said. The research assistant…

March 10, 2023

#IAmScience Shin-Ichiro Agake

  By Sarah Kiefer | Bond LSC It may have taken almost three years, but Shin-Ichiro Agake made it back to the Prof. Gary Stacey lab. The Japanese native had his study abroad cut short in 2020, sending him packing, and a lot happened in that time. He got married, has a five-month-old baby, earned his Ph.D., and became an assistant professor. “At the time I was disappointed that my research had been put on hold, but after that I tried to look ahead to the future and how I can go back to the United States again,…