News
May 19, 2020
Shifting Focus: HIV researcher takes on COVID-19
Marc Johnson | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC Marc Johnson’s research focus changed suddenly one day this February when he received a shipment. That package of synthesized SARS-COV2 spike genes — the virus that causes COVID-19 — has now taken him down a new path. “It was unusual, nothing like this has ever happened to me before,” Johnson said, an MU professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and Bond LSC investigator. “I’ve never had to switch directions so abruptly before but, you know, we’re always taking on new projects and shifting,…
May 15, 2020
#IAmScience Michael Petris
By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC Growing up more than 9,000 miles away in Melbourne, Australia, Michael Petris never thought he would work at MU, especially since he could not even locate the state of Missouri on a map. Now a professor of biochemistry, Petris was introduced to science early on in his life by his mother, who was a microbiologist and a high school science teacher, who made sure to immerse her children in the science field. He remembers growing up watching Australian wildlife documentaries and being interested in his science classes at school. After completing secondary…
May 13, 2020
The Little Robot That Can
The imaging system helps collect data on the growth of plants. | photo contributed by Samuel McInturf. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC In a corner of the David Mendoza lab, a small machine runs back and forth across a track, taking pictures continuously of plants grown in clear square plates. This machine not only saves time during data collection but also helps the lab track the growth of plants in real time. After almost five years of development, the Mendoza lab has reached the final stretch in their robotic endeavors. Now, they’re putting finishing…
May 1, 2020
#IAmScience Bruna Luz
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC At four years old, first year Ph.D. student Bruna Luz was running around and catching bugs in her backyard just to stare at them, trying to understand how they worked. “Biology has always been part of my life,” Luz said. Now, Luz studies soybean genetics and how soybeans interact with rhizobia in the Gary Stacey lab at Bond LSC. Rhizobia are bacteria that fix nitrogen in the soil, providing nutrients to the soybean plant. In exchange, the bacteria feed off of photosynthesis products created by the plant, forming a symbiotic…
April 30, 2020
Treating COVID-19: Bond LSC lab explores effectiveness of remdesivir and other potential drugs
By Jerry Duggan | Bond LSC As countries hang their hopes on the drug remdesivir for battling COVID-19, recent modeling and computer-aided drug evaluation at the University of Missouri caution to keep an open mind and consider other drug treatments. Kamlendra Singh at MU’s Bond Life Sciences Center evaluated remdesivir — an antiviral originally developed to treat Ebola — and several other drugs for long-term success in treating coronavirus causing the pandemic across the world. His results were published April 26 in the journal Pathogens. “Remdesivir is working against COVID-19, but the other drugs may also be as…
April 30, 2020
Treating COVID-19: Bond LSC lab explores effectiveness of remdesivir and other potential drugs
By Jerry Duggan | Bond LSC As countries hang their hopes on the drug remdesivir for battling COVID-19, recent modeling and computer-aided drug evaluation at the University of Missouri caution to keep an open mind to other drug treatments. Kamlendra Singh at MU’s Bond Life Sciences Center assessed remdesivir and several other drugs for long-term success in treating coronavirus causing the pandemic across the world. His results were published April 26 in the journal Pathogens. “Remdesivir is working against COVID-19, but these other drugs are in no way inferior to it,”…
April 29, 2020
The Lab in Time of COVID-19
The main halls of Bond LSC are empty due to researchers being told to work from home. | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC On an average day, you can find post doctorate Norman Best surrounded by corn in the greenhouse or at his bench in the McSteen lab doing molecular work. However, since Columbia and state leaders issued a stay-at-home order on March 25 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, this means Bond LSC is mostly empty and researchers like Best are at home writing. “It’s definitely…
April 29, 2020
Influenza & COVID-19 Research: A Campus-wide Effort
Henry Wan | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC With shelter in place orders being extended throughout the country and events being canceled, COVID-19 is a pressing issue, and influenza researchers at MU have been pivoting recently to begin studying the virus. Henry Wan, an influenza researcher and Bond LSC principal investigator, is planning on expanding his work to start looking at COVID-19 along with a team of epidemiologists, anthropologists, engineers, and more at MU. While influenza and COVID-19 are not the same virus, both are infectious respiratory…
April 27, 2020
Making sense of junk
Mary Butler, an undergraduate from Truman State University, gains experience working on experiments in the lab of Bond LSC’s Cheryl Rosenfeld. | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox How did an undergraduate student from Truman State University spend last summer working on a research project with a Bond Life Sciences Center primary investigator and become on track to be published as first author several months thereafter? A nationwide National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored program has allowed Mary Butler to jump-start her research career early on. Butler, a sophomore biochemistry…
April 24, 2020
#IAmScience Jessica Milano-Foster
By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC The placenta is a crucial organ that develops in a woman’s body during pregnancy that provides oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. After her experience doing research on this organ while getting her master’s degree at the University of Kansas Medical Center, current MU Ph.D. student Jessica Milano-Foster has become passionate about studying it. To continue her education, she has teamed up with Laura Schulz’s lab in the MU School of Medicine and Michael Roberts’ lab at Bond LSC to look at the role of…
April 22, 2020
Boron: Exposed
Figure B is a colorized radiographic image that shows the path of boron in a five-day-old maize seedling. | photo contributed by Alexandra Housh, Michaela Matthes, Amber Gerheart, Stacy Wilder, Kun-Eek Kil, Michael Schueller, James Guthrie, Paula McSteen, and Richard Ferrieri. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC The element Boron, while extremely low in levels, leaves a trail of green and blue radioactive decay as it travels through the veins of plants. Due to radiotracer technology, this picture of the element’s movement provides this unique insight to what’s going on inside the leaves, stems and roots of…
April 20, 2020
New Genome Sequencing Instrument Pays Dividends at DNA Core
Nathan Bivens and Wes Warren. | Photos by Mariah Cox & Erica Overfelt, Bond LSC By Jerry Duggan | Bond LSC Behind any breakthrough in science lies a research process full of precise methods and instrumentation essential to moving from hypothesis to discovery. Some of those genetic breakthroughs just became more possible on UM System campuses, thanks to a new, more efficient genome sequencing instrument at MU’s DNA Core. The NovaSeq instrument was first put to use in December, purchased with funds from an UM System tier 1 grant meant to benefit…