#IAmScience
April 30, 2021
#IAmScience Ellie Swan
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Whether Ellie Swan is in the gym lifting 200 pounds or in the lab preparing samples, she loves learning how nutrition and exercise affect the body. “I’ve always really liked exercising and nutrition, and I like learning about that, so it’s interesting to me to learn about it on a very small level on how your body works so that you can have that better understanding,” Swan said. “I feel like once you have that base knowledge, you can take that on a greater scale for your body and…
April 16, 2021
#IAmScience Chiemerie Azubuogu
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC When Chiemerie Azubuogu announced his new position in the Bond Life Sciences Center on his LinkedIn page, he thought back to when he first came to the U.S. from Nigeria eight years ago. “If I get into a time machine and go back to that particular date on the 23rd of August 2013 and meet myself there in the airport and tell myself, ‘Hey, in 2020, you have finished your bachelor’s, and you’ll be going to Ph.D. program,’ I’d probably doubt myself like, ‘Man, get out of here,’” Azubuogu said. Azubuogu…
April 2, 2021
#IAmScience Nathan Bivens
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC With water up to his waist, Nathan Bivens is in his element fly fishing as he waits for a trout to grab onto the end of his line. Bivens picked up this hobby growing up in his hometown of Cassville, which is also where his path to the Bond Life Sciences Center began. The DNA Core Director is the kind of person who will always be there when others need him. “I really enjoy working with a variety of researchers across campus,” Bivens said. “My role and work in a core…
March 19, 2021
#IAmScience Dangping Luo
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC The greenhouse isn’t a place most researchers linger. With condensation sticking to the glass windows, scientists usually don’t dawdle longer than 30 minutes in the heat and humidity. But Dangping Luo, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to mind and takes his time tending to his rice plants. A research scientist in the Bing Yang lab at Bond Life Sciences Center, Luo, is a man of determination and conviction. For the past 18 years, Luo has been studying rice genetics and its interaction with disease. “When I think something is of…
March 5, 2021
#IAmScience Shawn Thomas
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Social media botany advocate and self-proclaimed coffee snob, Shawn Thomas is the kind of person to find joy in everything. Thomas graduated from the University of Georgia in spring 2018 and worked as a bioinformatics technician for a year with Jim Leebens-Mack before joining Chris Pires’ lab at Bond Life Sciences Center as a Ph.D. student in fall 2019. Ever since, he’s been studying how genome duplications affect plant traits in a certain group of plants that include broccoli, cauliflower and kale. Genome duplications occur when DNA is…
Feb. 19, 2021
#IAmScience Margaret Lange
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Building a community through screens and limited interaction can be difficult. However, it’s no problem for Margaret Lange at Bond Life Sciences Center. “I’ve met such wonderful people,” Lange said. “It really is true that if you surround yourself with the right kind of people who are positive, who think creatively and who ask good questions, it shows you how to model that behavior yourself. It teaches you to be better and helps you think better.” Lange was originally part of the Donald Burke lab until she became an assistant professor…
Feb. 5, 2021
#IAmScience Shrikesh Sachdev
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Science is a pyramid. Every breakthrough and discovery are reached through incremental steps that build off the previous level. Shrikesh Sachdev, a senior research associate in the Michael Roberts lab, thoroughly understands this. “It takes many small steps to get to a treatment or a cure,” Sachdev said. “It very often takes decades, but it’s nice to be able to put in your little piece of the puzzle that might help lead to the discovery, if not a cure.” Sachdev began his path to Bond Life Sciences Center when…
Dec. 18, 2020
#IAmScience Caley Smith
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC With her cheerful and friendly demeanor, graduate student Caley Smith can transform any rigid lab into a place of warmth and scientific excitement. In 2017, Smith was searching for a lab on campus where she could explore the world of genetics. “It was probably not until high school biology class where I got my first real lecture on genetics and genetic diseases,” Smith said. “It was more about understanding. You have this gene, and this mutation happens, and this disease happens. That I always found super fascinating.” By the…
Oct. 30, 2020
#IAmScience Mona Kacher
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Years ago, when career technician Mona Kacher was still in school, her science teacher asked their students who wanted to dissect a salamander first. Some students were hesitant, others excited, but no one more excited than Kacher who had already raised her hand. Originally, Kacher was a medical technician in an Army hospital lab. However, when she left the Army, she was encouraged by her then father-in-law to apply for a senior research position at Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. There, the lab manager asked if she knew anything about…
Oct. 16, 2020
#IAmScience Alana Rodney
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Research assistant Alana Rodney walked into her high school science class a few years ago expecting to fill another credit. However, it was there that she found her love of genetics. “I just remember doing the lab and I learned how to use a pipette,” Rodney said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness. This is so cool.’” Fast forward to now and Rodney just completed her undergraduate degree in May 2019. And she’s not stopping there as she now pursues a master’s in animal science, genetics and genomics to…
Sep. 18, 2020
#IAmScience Kinjal Majumder
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC It was another day in the lab. Kinjal Majumder, a postdoctoral fellow in the David Pintel lab at Bond Life Sciences Center, was working on his research and stopped to check his email. At that moment, he found out he just won a $700,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. He felt relieved. “I wish I could say something more high minded about it, but honestly, at that point, you’re like, ‘Oh, thank God. I got the award,’” Majumder said. “Then I thought, ‘Alright. I’m gonna…
May 29, 2020
#IAmScience Landon Swartz
By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC Landon Swartz, undergraduate student researcher, is motivated by a simple desire — to help others through the power of computer engineering. Coming from Springfield, Missouri, Swartz decided to go to Mizzou in 2017. “I chose engineering,” Swartz said. “It fits my idea of solving problems, but also lets me be able to see a benefit to people.” Swartz got involved in research through the honors college after he talked to David Mendoza, associate professor in plant sciences and Bond LSC investigator. Mendoza was looking for people to…