News
March 17, 2017
Planting a seed for sciences
Jinghong Chen | Bond Life Sciences Center Plants on the left grow with rhizobia bacteria, one type of fixing nitrogen bacteria, in the greenhouse, while the plants on the right grow without the bacteria. | photo by Jinghong Chen, Bond LSC Since eight years old, Beverly Agtuca knew she wanted to be a scientist. A trip to Philippines changed Agtuca, an American-born Filipino, and inspired her passion on plants. “My grandma always told me to work in the field all day so that they can have enough food for us to eat,” Agtuca said. “The life…
March 15, 2017
Lloyd Sumner #IAmScience
Lloyd Sumner, biochemistry professor and Director of the Metabolomics Center at Bond LSC. | photo by Morgan McOlash, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I have an infinite curiosity and we have some powerful toolsets that I am confident will make a difference, not just in plant biochemistry, but in many scientific arenas.” What change you would like to see in this world because of your research? “I’m a technology junkie at heart. We are developing tools that can potentially advance many areas, and not just my own personal…
March 8, 2017
Scott Peck #IAmScience
Scott Peck, a biochemistry professor at Bond LSC. | photo by Morgan McOlash, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I want to discover. I want to ‘see’ – by understanding – things that others haven’t ‘seen’ before.” Every day we make decisions based off on what we encounter in the environment. Plants do the same thing. Scott Peck, a Chicago-area native, is a biochemist who studies how plants translate information they receive about the environment (such as changes in light and temperature) into their own chemical “decisions”, also known as signal transduction.
Feb. 22, 2017
Debbie Allen #IAmScience
Debbie Allen, the Coordinator of Graduate Initatives at Bond LSC. | photo by Morgan McOlash, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because during their journey all graduate students deserve expertise, care and advocacy from graduate coordinators.” As Coordinator of Graduate Life Science Initiatives, Debbie Allen facilitates several activities supporting graduate recruitment, training, mentoring and career services. In other words, she’s been the “mama bear” to many life sciences graduate students over the years, and is passionate about student advocacy. To Debbie, while understanding the hard science her students study is important,…
Feb. 17, 2017
Art of balance
Jinghong Chen | Bond Life Sciences Center Vinit Shanbhag mixes the CRISPR plasmid DNA with cells. The lab will test whether the gene of interest has been knocked out of the cells later. | photo by Jinghong Chen, Bond LSC It might be strange to say, but in a way the Australian soil led scientist Michael Petris to where he is now. In certain areas of Australia, soils suffer from extremely low level of copper bioavailability, resulting in poor growth and neurological problems on sheep. Petris, a Bond LSC investigator and professor of biochemistry who was…
Feb. 15, 2017
Pork without the Pig
This screenshot of a supplemental video included in Genovese’s study shows cultured pork cells contracting in response to a neurotransmitter. | photo courtesy of the Nicholas Genovese What if you could have pork without the pig? Nicholas Genovese’s cultured meat could provide a more environmentally friendly meat By Eleanor C. Hasenbeck | MU Bond Life Sciences Center Scientists are one step closer to that reality. For the first time, researchers in the Roberts’ lab at Bond Life Sciences Center at MU were able to create a framework to make…
Feb. 15, 2017
Arianna Soldati #IAmScience
Arianna Soldati, a Ph.D candidate in volcanology at Bond LSC. | photo by Morgan McOlash, Bond LSC By Mary Jane Rogers | Bond LSC “#IAmScience because through my research, I can expand the bubble of human knowledge and I think that’s a pretty amazing thing. We don’t have a volcano, so we make our own.” Imagine stirring rock. Sounds impossible? Not to Arianna Soldati, a volcanology expert conducting #MizzouResearch on the viscosity of rock. By heating and then stirring rocky material in a machine that acts like a miniature volcano, she identifies its viscosity, or thickness. As someone…
Feb. 10, 2017
Chemical persuasion
Scientists prove parasite mimics key plant peptide to feed off roots By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC A nematode (the oblong object on the left) activates the vascular stem cell pathway in the developing nematode feeding site (syncytium) on a plant root. | photo by Xiaoli Guo, MU post-doctoral research associate When it comes to nematodes, unraveling the root of the issue is complicated. These tiny parasites siphon off the nutrients from the roots of important crops like soybeans, and scientists keep uncovering more about how they accomplish this task. Research from the…
Feb. 7, 2017
Growing a more nourishing future
Nga Nguyen hopes to apply her research to increase nutrient contents in crop plants By Eleanor C. Hasenbeck | Bond LSC Nga Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in MU’s Division of Plant Sciences, observes samples of a model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, in the Mendoza-Cózatl lab at Bond Life Sciences Center on Feb. 7, 2017. | photo by Eleanor C. Hasenbeck, Bond LSC Plants smell better than animals, at least to Nga Nguyen. That’s one reason why she decided to study them. “In my undergrad, I studied horticulture,” Nguyen said. “For that you don’t really learn…
Feb. 6, 2017
Beginning of a journey
By Jinghong Chen | Bond Life Sciences Center Emily Million, a prospective biochemistry graduate student from Truman State University and Kevin Muñoz-Forti of University of Puerto Rico’s Pontifical Catholic University talk at the Graduate Life Sciences Joint Recruitment Weekend on February 4 after looking at posters about many different research programs and projects. | Roger Meissen, Bond LSC Nick Dietz was not certain where to start his research journey this time last year. But the atmosphere during a recruitment weekend nearly a year ago convinced him to pick MU over three other offers of…
Jan. 30, 2017
A plant remedy
MU Center for Agroforestry symposium talks medicinal plants By Jinghong Chen | Bond LSC Rob Riedel from Wild Ozark Ginseng Farm introduces their products at the agroforestry symposium on Jan. 26th, 2017 | photo by Jinghong Chen, Bond LSC Researchers, landowners and entrepreneurs converged at Bond Life Sciences Center to discuss current developments and topics in medicinal plants and agroforestry at the eighth UMCA Agroforestry Symposium. This daylong annual event, hosted by the Center for Agroforestry, took place on Thursday, Jan. 26. People have been using medicinal plants as natural remedies and medicines for thousands…
Jan. 11, 2017
Cornelison receives highest honor from White House
It feels good to get recognition, especially when it comes from the White House. This week D Cornelison, a Bond Life Sciences Center researcher and associate professor of biological sciences found out she will receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. She joins 102 researchers this year selected by the White House to receive this prestigious award. This is a first for Missouri as a state…