University of Missouri

Nov. 19, 2019

A blight-free future

Bond LSC scientist works with global consortium to eliminate costly rice disease Rice terraces in Sapa, Vietnam: Rice is the world’s most important food plant, playing a vital role for nutrition in Asia and Africa in particular. In those countries, rice is generally grown by small farmers. If their fields are infected by bacterial blight, their very existence is threatened. | Photo by HHU / Sarah M. Schmidt By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC COLUMBIA, Mo. – Deep in the basement of the Bond Life Sciences Center is a small room emanating neon purple…

Nov. 15, 2019

#IAmScience Clayton Kranawetter

By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC  Taking things apart to figure out how they function was a huge part of Clayton Kranawetter’s childhood. From dismantling his parents’ old computer to disassembling a baseball pitching machine, he’s always been curious about the way things work. Kranawetter always looked for old machines or items that weren’t being used anymore to take apart and analyze. The comical part is that he never put them back together. Throughout his life, Kranawetter has carried a sense of curiosity about him that has led him to learn new hobbies or languages…

Nov. 12, 2019

Exceeding the Challenge

Focus on new grants results in research funding bump On Oct. 11, 2019, as part of University of Missouri Homecoming festivities, Chancellor Alexander N. Cartwright shared about MU’s value to society during the annual State of the University address. | Contributed by MU News Bureau By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC It’s an inconvenient truth that every scientist knows; progress in research is driven by the money they receive to pursue discoveries. As MU’s Chancellor Alexander Cartwright addressed the Mizzou community in October, he announced positive gains in securing grants for future science. “Not long ago, we…

Nov. 8, 2019

#IAmScience Maddy Creach

“Science is concrete, but it isn’t rigid. Research is constantly new and fresh.” By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC For Maddy Creach, a scientific career was always the end goal, and television and books have played a part in that inspiration. When she was a kid, her “big science nerd” of a dad watched NOVA all the time with her along with dinosaur documentaries, and she could always turn to him for support in her career aspirations. That support has continued for her current dream — to work for NASA’s plant research team. Astronaut Scott…

Nov. 1, 2019

#IAmScience Sharon Pike

By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Sharon Pike grew up in an era that didn’t encourage young girls to pursue fields predominantly occupied by men. Through trial and error in various careers, she eventually landed a spot as a lab technician at MU in 1985. Since then, she found her passion and voice in science, and at the age of 77, she doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Pike felt the limitations of being a girl, growing up in the Midwest and lacking the financial means to obtain an education beyond the undergraduate level. But,…

Oct. 24, 2019

#IamScience Paul Martin 

By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC Two years ago, Paul Martin found his love for biology in a freshman-level non-majors course. He’s now a researcher in Walter Gassmann’s lab helping to study transcription factors that regulate a plant’s immune response to bacterial pathogens.  Martin grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, near Arrowhead Stadium and has always loved sports. He recalled caring more about baseball stats in school than learning. By the time he reached high school, he loved to write and thought he could make a career out of it. …

Oct. 23, 2019

Nature’s cinema: New technique allows plant imaging in real-time

The September issue of Molecular Plant depicts a plant fluorescing in response to reactive oxygen species propogation taken by Yosef Fichman of the Mittler Lab. By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Plant biologists across the country opened their mailboxes last month to the glowing leaves of Arabidopsis on the cover of the latest issue of Molecular Plant. That cover taken by post-doctoral researcher Yosef Fichman of Bond Life Sciences Center depicts plants fluorescing in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) propagation, a technique that allows researchers to track plant response to certain stressors. The novel approach is…

Oct. 18, 2019

#IAmScience Fernanda Amaral

By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Growing up on farm in Brazil, Fernanda Amaral often wondered why her father had to treat the soil with nitrogen fertilizer between growing cycles. She questioned why the soil wasn’t enough to consistently provide crops the nutrients they needed to grow and flourish. Amaral remembers her father explaining soybeans take a lot out of the soil, leaving nothing behind for the next batch of crops. So, he needed to artificially treat the soil with chemical fertilizers to continue the harvest cycle, maintain his business and support his family.

Oct. 16, 2019

Homegrown researcher

Years at MU lands student turned faculty tenure-track position Maggie Lange-Osborn is a newly appointed assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. | Photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Where can passion, hard work and more than a decade worth of experience get you? They landed Maggie Lange-Osborn her own research lab on the University of Missouri campus. Lange is starting down that path in Bond Life Sciences Center but will move to a permanent space in either the Medical Science Building or Schweitzer Hall eventually. She’s excited to…

Oct. 14, 2019

Regulating a balance between protection and growth

By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC It’s a sensitive balance between growth and defense when it comes to plants. While a built-in, passive immune system helps them survive attackers, this response halts the growth and development of the plant, something that fascinates Ben Spears in the lab of Walter Gassmann at Bond LSC. “In our lab, we try to pick apart the different signaling pathways governing these processes of growth and maintaining an immune response; we think of them as distinct processes, but, in reality, they are all interconnected,” Spears said. “If we can unlock the ability…

Oct. 11, 2019

#IAmScience Saurav Sarma

By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC Saurav Sarma grew up amongst tea plantations and medicinal plants in the northeastern corner of India near Tibet, a state called Assam. His day-to-day observations of the plants sparked a curiosity that eventually led him to a career looking at the chemical building blocks behind it all in the labs of Lloyd Sumner and the University of Missouri Metabolomics Center at Bond Life Sciences Center. His interest revolved around the connections between carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, which make up living systems. “How they’re connected makes all the…

Oct. 9, 2019

A passion for teaching rooted in research

Amanda Paz Herrera extends her passion for research to teaching others when teaching science. | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Dry erase markers and Styrofoam molecular models are a part of Amanda Paz Herrera’s repertoire when teaching complex scientific processes to the average person. Teaching the next generation of scientists requires work and discipline, but Paz Herrera is up for the task. ­Paz Herrera takes her science on the road with Science on Wheels, a traveling group of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at MU who aim to make science accessible…