Archive
Donald H. Burke-Agüero
Research Interests The Burke lab explores the many roles of ribonucleic acid, or RNA. This substance has long been known to function in cells to help copy genetic information from DNA, but scientists increasingly recognize many other tasks that RNA carries out. The lab pushes the boundaries of what is possible to achieve with RNA. From using aptamers to target cancer, using ribozymes to explore the RNA origins of life on Earth, and using protein engineering to understand RNA-protein interactions in viral replication, a theme that unifies the lab’s projects is the relationships among macromolecular sequence, function, selection pressures,…
Walter Gassmann
Research Interests The innate immune response triggered by plant immune receptors is very potent at preventing pathogen spread. Consequently, this response also has the potential to be detrimental to the host if not regulated properly. Apart from the regulation of immune receptor expression and accumulation it is still unclear how this fine-tuning of the immune system is achieved. Research in the Gassmann lab addresses this gap in knowledge using genetics, molecular and cell biology, and proteomics. The cultivation of genetically uniform plants over large areas frequently selects for pathogen strains that can overcome innate plant defenses, and large crop losses…
Marc Johnson
Research Interests The Marc Johnson’s lab’s main focus is development of next generations surveillance methods focused on air and water surveillance. For air, those methods are implementing air samplers in public locations and monitoring levels of known human pathogens. For water, the lab collects environmental and wastewater samples from across the country and performs high throughput sequencing the characterize the complete virile. The data from this project is used for monitoring both known and emerging pathogens. Traditionally a molecular virology lab focused on retroviral replication, the lab transitioned into developing a wastewater surveillance system for the state of Missouri during…
Gary Stacey
Research Interests ATP is a ubiquitous compound in all living cells; it not only provides the energy to drive many biochemical reactions, but also functions in signal transduction as a substrate for kinases, adenylate cyclases, etc. However, ATP was also shown to be an essential signaling agent outside of cells, where it is referred to as extracellular ATP (eATP). An extensive literature exists in animals implicating eATP in numerous cellular processes, including neurotransmission, immune responses, cell growth, and cell death. Initial observations of effects of eATP in animals were met with considerable skepticism. However, much less is known about the…
Anthony Griffiths
Research Interests The Griffiths lab aims to understand fundamental virological processes to aid the development of vaccines and therapeutics. The LIDR works with a range of viruses utilizing molecular techniques and animal models for infectious disease research to facilitate this work.
Lloyd W. Sumner
Research Interests Dr. Sumner’s research is focused on the development, integration and application of large-scale biochemical profiling of plant metabolites, proteins, and transcripts (metabolomics, proteomics and transcriptomics) for the discovery and characterization of the molecular and biochemical components related to the biosynthesis of plant natural products/specialized metabolites. He also actively applies these integrated omics technologies in a collaborative manner for greater insight into health and disease in a large number of species, including humans. A current focal area is cancer. Dr. Sumner has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters and has an h-index of 74. The Sumner lab is highly…
Trupti Joshi
Research Interests The Joshi lab has expertise in the areas of bioinformatics and its application to biomedical sciences, plants sciences, animal sciences, and health informatics fields. The lab has three key research pillars: Multiomics Informatics Data Analytics and Framework Development Multiomics Informatics Method Development Multiomics Data Integration Tool Development…
William and Wendy Picking
Research Interests Vaccines are perhaps the greatest public health achievement of our lifetime. They have prevented millions of deaths from childhood and adult diseases to the point that some pathogens have almost been eradicated. Unfortunately, there is much work that still needs to be done to develop more vaccines that can be delivered intranasally and thus prevent some of the vaccine hesitancy exhibited throughout the world. Furthermore, many vaccines can be formulated to be therapeutic and can thus treat a person and vaccinate in one motion, which aids in compliance to the vaccine schedule. The Picking lab aims to…