News
Aug. 5, 2021
Two SARS-CoV-2 strains cause independent infections only 19 days apart
Increasing detection of reinfections and rediscovering brand new infections within days raises concerns for herd immunity and the durability of vaccine efficacy. Cynthia Tang working to figure out how COVID-19 reinfections can bring us answers on how the virus is developing at Bond LSC. | photo by Davis Suppes, Bond LSC By Davis Suppes | Bond LSC Like many viruses, SARS-CoV-2 continues to develop and evolve with time. As the virus evolves it can become more infectious, produce worse symptoms, and have a higher fatality rate. While people receive more treatment for…
July 23, 2021
Bringing Protection Back in Line
Research refines platform to address immune disorders Dr. Esma Yolcu and Dr. Haval Shirwan, Co-pioneers of ProtEx technology By Davis Suppes | Bond LSC The things that protect you can also cause the most harm. That’s especially true when it comes to your immune system, which protects you against infections, but is also responsible for a host of diseases, including autoimmune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes. More than 1.4 million Americans suffer from the self-harming condition of diabetes without an effective cure, but researchers Haval Shirwan and Esma Yolcu may have the…
July 16, 2021
How a pandemic spreads
Saathvik Kannan, Kamal, Singh, and Austin Spratt, worked together at Bond LSC to identify new SARS-CoV-2 variants. | photo by Davis Suppes, Bond LSC COVID-19 analysis looks at variant spread By Davis Suppes | Bond LSC Variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 continue to plague the world with spikes in infection, keeping the current pandemic from being fully controlled as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections remain unmanageable in some parts of the world. Researchers at Bond Life Sciences Center and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)…
July 1, 2021
A scientist steps away from the bench
After 40 years of hard work, it is finally time for David Pintel to pass the torch. Dr. David Pintel, retiring after 40 years at Bond LSC, takes in his office during his last week at Bond LSC. | photo by Davis Suppes, Bond LSC By Davis Suppes| Bond LSC David Pintel is hanging up his lab coat after 40 years. “It’s been an honor to be able to do my work at the University of Missouri. I’ve had a great group of colleagues both here and at the medical school,”…
June 24, 2021
#IAmScience Lyndon Coghill
Lyndon Coghill is the new Director of Informatics Research Core, and he is already making big moves at Mizzou. Lyndon Coghill, Director of Informatics Research Core, stands near his office on June 22 at Bond LSC. | photo by Davis Suppes, Bond LSC By Davis Suppes | Bond LSC Lyndon Coghill’s official title may be Director of Informatics for the Informatics Research Core, but his job branches out much wider than just a single label. Even as an undergrad, Coghill wore many different hats. “I was incredibly excited about the way that the MU Office of…
June 22, 2021
A feral past may help chart the future for Brassica vegetables
Although Brassica cretica doesn’t look much like cabbage, broccoli or kohlrabi, the wild relative is the closest relation to our modern vegetables and its endurance might show us how to make our vegetable crops more resilient in the future. | Illustration courtesy of Andi Kur By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC You might not envision plant scientists as the modern-day Indiana Jones of biology, but University of Missouri researchers have been hot on the hunt for an evolutionary history, looking for clues to the ancestors of our gardens and grocery shelves. To find the closest wild…
May 25, 2021
New observation from Stacey lab could help advance plant engineering
Large amounts of the Arabidopsis plant are grown at Bond Life Sciences Center for multiple labs to experiment with and use. | photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Think about how a home alarm system alerts a person to a potential burglary with sensors detecting whether an intruder picked a lock, came through a window or came through a garage. Plants are much like this, surviving with the help of their thousands of sensors that can send danger signals to the whole plant so it can react effectively. “Plants have to…
May 17, 2021
BIPS: A Semester in Review
Maria Lusardi showing how she connects the pH sensors to the Arduino. | photo by Becca Wolf, Bond LSC By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC As the semester comes to an end, Bioinformatics in Plant Sciences (BIPS) close the school year with a lot of accomplishments: one team earned Best Abstract honors at the Mizzou Undergraduate Research Forum, three teams have papers in the review process, one team got their research published in a journal, and two BIPS members were even selected to share their work at the Research Day in Jefferson City, MO. These teams did not…
May 14, 2021
#IAmScience Kulbir Sandhu
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Kulbir Sandhu’s curiosity had guided him from place to place, but it was his fascination with plant science that has stayed the same. While Sandhu has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Bing Yang lab at Bond Life Sciences Center for the past six months, his path towards plant science began when he was 18 years old in his home country of India. In high school, Sandhu was drawn to the biology route because of helpful and enthusiastic science teachers. He grew to like it as time went on…
May 12, 2021
Beyond counting: computer science partnership helps speed up plant science experiments
Janlo Robil, graduate student in the Paula McSteen lab, came up with the GrasVIQ project after he finished a project that required him to count hundreds of plant leaf veins. | photo by Lauren Hines, Bond LSC By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC It’s not surprising that researchers feel discouraged when pursuing projects that involve plant leaf vein density analysis. Manually counting individual leaf veins and measuring their density to understand how nutrients are transported in plants can take weeks of tedious work. That’s how Janlo Robil was feeling when he was working on a maize…
May 7, 2021
#IAmScience Sara Ricardez Hernandez
By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC As an undergraduate student, Sara Ricardez Hernandez did not have mentors that exposed her to the many opportunities available for underrepresented students — like summer programs and other research initiatives — but now a graduate student and a Life Sciences fellow, Ricardez Hernandez wants to make sure that no one else is ever in that boat. “I really like advocating for other people like myself. For example, the university that I went to for undergrad had very little mentoring for minority students, so I want to help people not only be able…
April 30, 2021
#IAmScience Ellie Swan
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Whether Ellie Swan is in the gym lifting 200 pounds or in the lab preparing samples, she loves learning how nutrition and exercise affect the body. “I’ve always really liked exercising and nutrition, and I like learning about that, so it’s interesting to me to learn about it on a very small level on how your body works so that you can have that better understanding,” Swan said. “I feel like once you have that base knowledge, you can take that on a greater scale for your body and…