News
Aug. 1, 2024
Fishing cat genetic research paves the way for animal conservation
By Sarah Rubinstein | Bond LSC Rachel Carroll, research specialist in the Wes Warren lab at Bond LSC, stands with magazine cover for her study on fishing cats. | Photo by Braiden Wade As animals face increasing pressure from habitat loss and changing climate in the wild, zoos worldwide strive to reinforce diversity for at-risk populations among their inhabitants. So, when Rachel Carroll took charge of creating a genetic blueprint for the fishing cat — a feline native to Southeast Asia — she had one eye toward helping the often-overlooked “grumpy, overgrown house cat.” “We’re hoping that we…
July 23, 2024
Scientist sees legacy in search for cryptic Covid-19 strain origin
By Sarah Rubinstein | Bond LSC Marc Johnson, a principal investigator at Bond LSC, works at his desk. | Photo by Braiden Wade When Marc Johnson set out to find the source behind the mysterious combinations of coronavirus mutations he found in wastewater, he had no idea this work could one day be his legacy. “If there’s anything in my career that’s ever cited in 100 years, it will be this study,” said Johnson, a principal investigator at Bond Life Sciences Center. The research details how scientists narrowed a search for a cryptic lineage of SARS-CoV-2, the virus…
July 2, 2024
Mizzou researcher gains global insights through Fulbright opportunity
By Sarah Rubinstein | Bond LSC Bing Yang is a Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator. | Photo by Braiden Wade, Bond LSC For a researcher passionate about making crops more resilient against diseases, working in a rapidly growing, influential country was a huge opportunity. Bing Yang, a Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator, put his knowledge into practice earlier this year in India thanks to a recent Fulbright Specialist Program award. “It was a very rich experience for me to go there and have that firsthand experience in a foreign country,” Yang said. Yang ran a…
June 25, 2024
Two years of research create lasting impact for Nigerian visiting scholar
By Sarah Rubinstein | Bond LSC Michael Arowolo is a visiting professor in the lab of Dong Xu, a Bond LSC principal investigator. | photo by Braiden Wade, Bond LSC The African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” can especially apply in science where that village includes mentors like Dong Xu, a Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator, who has trained hundreds of students and collaborators. Michael Arowolo, is among those mentored, having spent the past two years in Xu’s lab as a visiting scholar. In August, he will take that experience with him to…
May 22, 2024
The power of iron
One University of Missouri researcher’s latest discovery, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed how a muscle cell’s mitochondria fail to generate enough energy for skeletal muscles due to one iron–sulfur protein. This understanding could one day help lead to treatments for diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy — the most common type of muscular dystrophy in children — and muscle deterioration associated with aging.
April 29, 2024
From athlete to scientist, NIH grant latest feat for researcher
Kim Jasmer, assistant research professor of biochemistry, in the lab of Gary Weisman at Bond LSC | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Sarah Gassel | Bond LSC In the spring of 2009, Kim Jasmer, a swimmer from the University of Washington, arrived at the University of Missouri for the Missouri Grand Prix, one of a seven-meet series featuring elite swimmers from all over the world. Between swimming her own races and cheering on teammates, Jasmer had another important task on her agenda. The athlete had scheduled a meeting with the now-retired Mizzou Professor of Biological…
April 18, 2024
Ron Mittler named 2023 AAAS Fellow
Ron Mittler was among the five University of Missouri Faculty members recognized as a 2023 AAAS Fellow. | photo by Roger Meissen The list of this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows includes five University of Missouri Faculty members. Among the faculty is Ron Mittler, a principal investigator at MU’s Bond Life Sciences Center and Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and professor in the School of Medicine. The AAAS Fellows recognize researchers for distinguished and innovative work. Ron Mittler is being recognized for significant breakthroughs in the study of…
March 26, 2024
How Brucella bacteria find the sweet spot during infection
Research illuminates how one of the most prevalent zoonotic diseases infects cells MU undergraduate Raymond Preston shows an inoculated agar plate he uses in the Paul de Figureiredo lab to study bacterial and mechanisms. | photo by Sarah Gassel, Bond LSC By Sarah Gassel | Bond LSC When bacteria invade a host, they employ unique strategies to weaken the host’s cells for optimal infection. For the bacterial pathogen Brucella, this means manipulating internal cell machinery to subvert host function and favor infection. New research at the University of Missouri and Texas A&M University reveals a specific mechanism…
Feb. 12, 2024
Bond LSC researchers create model to shorten flu vaccine development and bolster efficiency
Cheng Gao built the MAIVeSS model to accurately predict optimal flu vaccine viruses when provided with a virus strain. | Photo by Sarah Gassel, Bond LSC By Sarah Gassel | Bond LSC Flu vaccines could be getting a booster of their own with the help of machine learning. MAIVeSS — the Machine-learning Assisted Influenza VaccinE Strain Selection framework — has the potential to reduce the time it takes to choose flu virus strains used in annual vaccines from months to mere days. Researchers at the University of Missouri partnered with Mississippi…
Feb. 1, 2024
Revealing cancer: immunotherapy advancement makes cancer easier to find by immune system
Close up illustration of isolated cancer cells at molecular scale. | Adobe Stock Joint release by Hokkaido University, Toyo University and University of Missouri Researchers in Japan and the United States have developed a novel method for boosting the immune system’s capability to detect and eliminate cancer cells. This technology robustly augments the amount of an immune complex called MHC (major histocompatibility complex) class I in cancer cells. “Our discovery has the potential to transform the way we approach cancer treatment,” said Hokkaido University immunologist Koichi Kobayashi, who led the study. “Our innovative technology enables us to…
Jan. 9, 2024
Bond Life Sciences Center: A 20-year journey of scientific triumphs
From the fifth floor of the Bond LSC, one can look down and see the bridges that connect the facility and foster daily interactions and collaboration. |Photo by Beni Adelstein, Bond LSC By Beni Adelstein When Julia Rodriguez walked into Bond Life Sciences Center in 2004, she and dozens of others were part of a new campus experiment. As an administrative staff member for the newly minted center, she had a big task ahead of her, but, as Bond LSC approaches its 20th anniversary, she thinks the trajectory and results largely accomplished their aims.
Dec. 13, 2023
MU researchers see future where gut microbiome could help detect colon cancer earlier
Lloyd Sumner (left) and James Amos-Landgraf teamed up to work on colon cancer research shortly after Sumner joined Bond LSC in 2016. | Photo by Sarah Kiefer, Bond LSC By Sarah Kiefer Could there be a better way to detect colon cancer than a colonoscopy? A less invasive test might depend on its association with microbes in the gut. University of Missouri researchers looked at the overall microbiome in a rat model of human colon cancer to discern how differences in the bacteria affect adenomas, benign tumor growth that frequently is precursor to…