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What the heck is it, anyway? Epigenetics involves changes in how your genes work. In classical genetics, traits pass from generation to generation in DNA, the strands of genetic material that encode your genes. Scientists thought alterations to the DNA itself was the only way changes could pass on to subsequent generations. So say you…
LSSP Symposium highlights epigenetics of the womb and how parental stress can change genetic makeup Could a stressful day during pregnancy change the future of a developing child nestled in the womb? Experts in the epigenetic research field are saying yes. This weekend the 11th annual Life Sciences and Society Program will kick off “Epigenetic…
To introduce our 11th Annual Life Sciences and Society Program, The Epigenetics Revolution: Nature, Nurture and What Lies Ahead that runs at the University of Missouri March 13-15, we figured it would be nice to define the term epigenetics. Spoiler: It’s amazing and it could change everything. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, epigenetics is “the study of heritable changes…
Bond LSC’s Jack Schultz and Heidi Appel hold model Arabidopsis plants used in many of their experiments. Roger Meissen/Bond LSC We often think of damage on a surface level. But for plants, much of the important response to an insect bite takes place out of sight. Over minutes and hours, particular plant genes are turned…
Adeno-associated virus type 2 at 3.0 A (xie, et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002; 99:10405-10.) Courtesy David Pintel It’s an understatement to say viruses are small. But an average virus dwarfs the diminutive variety known as parvoviruses, which are among the most minuscule pathogens known to science. Tucked inside a protective…
Protein specimens are prepared here in a Bond Life Sciences lab. Bond LSC’s Mark Hannink recently identified a protein pathway could be useful in restoring mitochondrial recycling in certain cells, a problem that leads to familial Parkinson’s Disease. It’s as if your recycling man quit his job and never came back. Bags pile up to unexpected…
A mutant arabidopsis model nearing pollination. Mutant arabidopsis models under lamps in Shuqun Zhang's lab. Three-month-old mutant arabidopsis models are used to study the function of pollen. The thought of pollen dispersed throughout the air might trigger horrific memories of allergies, but the drifting dander is absolutely essential to all life. Science has long linked…
Jingyou Yu, a graduate student, does cell surface staining in Shan-Lu Liu’s virology lab. The staining illuminates cell marker expressions in experiments that deduce how viruses spread once they are contracted. | Paige Blankenbuehler News headlines seem to feverishly spread as if they were a pandemic of the brain. Ebola hemorrhagic fever has been the most…
A yellow light indicates oxidant production in the tissue of a migrating fly larva. Source: Tobias Dick, German Cancer Research Center | Illustration by Paige Blankenbuehler University of Missouri research characterizes a novel compound By Paige Blankenbuehler Your body has an invisible enemy. One that it creates all on it’s own called oxidative stress, long thought…
Shan-Lu Liu, Bond LSC scientist and associate professor in the MU School of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Courtesy Justin Kelley, University of Missouri Health System. Shan-Lu Liu initially thought it was a mistake when a simple experiment kept failing. But that serendipitous accident led the Bond Life Sciences Center researcher to discover…
