Bond LSC News, Page 7 // Bond Life Sciences Center

Nov. 4, 2022

Complementary Crafts: New Bond LSC investigators bring dual microbiology projects to the center

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Wendy and Bill Picking tackle a stomach-churning area of science. Fascinated by the bacterium responsible for bacillary dysentery, Bill studies its structure and function, while Wendy aims to use information on that same bacterium for healing. “I do the vaccine stuff, but he’s a protein chemist. So the proteins…

Oct. 11, 2022

Mendoza lab receives $200,000 Pew Charitable Trusts grant for plant microbe nutrition collaboration

Pew Charitable Trusts may be best known for its non-partisan think tank subsidiary that focuses on demographic and social science issues, but its mission to improve public policy and inform bleeds over into support for science. David Mendoza — a Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator and associate professor of plant sciences in the College…

Sept. 30, 2022

#IAmScience: Jaime Barros-Rios

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC When Jaime Barros-Rios explains his work to others, he says he studies how plants make wood. All plants — from oaks down to daffodils and clovers — do, in fact, make wood …. or at least components of it. That component is lignin, a functional unit of plant cell…

Sept. 15, 2022

Becoming distinguished: Mittler awarded Board of Curators’ academic honor

By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC Bond Life Sciences Center’s Ron Mittler was recently named Curators’ Distinguished Professor by the University of Missouri System Board of Curators. This top honor is bestowed on professors for outstanding scholarship who have established substantial reputations within their field. “I am honored. Mizzou is such an amazing, supportive, and…

Sept. 13, 2022

Structural change: Singh moves into Bond LSC Investigator role with focus on drug and cellular interactions

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Kamlendra Singh sat down in his fourth floor office as a Bond LSC Investigator for the first time on September first after nearly 14 years at the Bond Life Sciences Center studying HIV, COVID-19 and how the right molecule can interact to fight disease. Designer compounds are Singh’s specialty,…

Aug. 26, 2022

#IAmScience: Negin Manshour

Negin Manshour first stepped into biology research as an engineering student using robotic algorithms to simulate proteins. When she left academia for her nine-year career developing elevator systems, her fascination with biology never faded. “I always had it in my mind that I wanted to work with proteins or biological concepts,” Manshour said. Manshour, a…

Aug. 17, 2022

Cutting into CRISPR: Walking through the process driving plant research

Gene-editing is the pinnacle of a biologist’s toolbox, but often left unexplained it seems more magic than science. Growing rice from a small cluster of cells to 4-foot stalks can take six-months or more of planning and careful nurture. But how do scientists change the intricate genetic material in each cell of the plants? The…

July 25, 2022

Chemical Correspondence: MU researcher plays key role in overseas aptamer technology

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Donald Burke is a principal investigator at the Bond Life Sciences Center. He is a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and a joint professor of biochemistry. Photo by Lauren Hines | Bond LSC What started as an email correspondence between two aptamer enthusiasts rapidly snowballed into a hat…

July 15, 2022

#IAmScience Beatriz Praena Garcia

Photo by Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Art and science are often considered opposites, but Beatriz Praena Garcia sees overlap. “I think in this job you need to be very artistic,” Praena said. “I have a basic methodology to do the essays … then I read a little bit online. You can search in another…

July 1, 2022

#IAmScience: Ajay Gupta

By Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Photo by Cara Penquite | Bond LSC Ajay Gupta learned biology basics as a first year undergraduate on the bumpy bus ride from his small hometown to Punjab Agricultural University. Just a few hours’ ride, he made the most of his time before he returned home to help his…