#IAmScience
Sep. 7, 2019
#IAmScience Hong An
Hong An is a postdoctoral fellow in the Pires lab. | Photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage all make up an important part of the food system and provide the nutrients we need to stay healthy—yet, there is still much that researchers don’t know about the genetic structure and the ancestral history of Brassicaceae, the mustard and cabbage family. Hong An, a postdoctoral fellow in Chris Pires lab, has spent the past three years mapping the genetic history of canola seeds, which are in the…
Aug. 29, 2019
#IAmScience Carolyn Robinson
By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC When Carolyn Robinson was a kid, she was fascinated by the world around her. She remembers putting scabs under magnifying glasses and squishing bugs to try and understand the oddities of the world. “Science continuously blows my mind,” Robinson said. “There’s always something where you almost don’t believe it at first, and there is so much we still don’t know, even about something as simple as a virus.” As a now 3rd-year graduate student working on her Ph.D. in molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics…
May 3, 2019
#IAmScience Ethan Myers
Ethan Myers is a senior biochemistry major studying oil production in soybeans. | photo by Mariah Cox, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox Preparing home-cooked meals regularly and maintaining houseplants can oftentimes be too time-consuming for stressed-out college students, but not for Ethan Myers. At Myers’ student apartment you can find a bonsai tree and a plethora of herbs such as catnip, basil, mint and even some pepper plants. This love of plants comes from his childhood when he spent his summers helping his grandma plant shrubs, flowers and trees in her garden. Using the herbs she…
April 6, 2019
#IAmScience Patience Okiring
By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC In the warm, inviting atmosphere of the Bond LSC fiscal office reside the unsung heroes that make science possible. When a new discovery is made, few look back to see who wrote the grants and secured funds that allowed the research to thrive, yet those staff members quietly fight for researchers every day. After only a year as a grant writer, Patience Okiring has worked on so many grants that she can’t keep count. “There are a lot of challenges, of course, but it’s like a new discovery…
March 22, 2019
#IAmScience Lucas Woods
By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Ten years ago, Lucas Woods stepped into Gary Weisman’s lab with a fresh perspective on P2 cell receptors. Now, as an experienced lab manager, Woods dives deeper into the role of these receptors in a myriad of diseases. Woods came to the Bond Life Sciences Center after graduating from Missouri State University in Springfield with a degree in cell and molecular biology. He studied P2 receptors as a part of his undergraduate research with Dr. Richard Garrad, who completed his post-doctoral research in Weisman’s lab. Garrad recognized Woods’s interest…
Feb. 8, 2019
#IAmScience Ashley Meyer
Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Situated in the Bond Life Sciences Center is an almost empty research lab on the fourth floor, which to some may look like an end but is really just a new beginning. Inside you may find a few boxes of gloves, a stack of brightly colored test tube racks and a sole thermocycler sitting on the lab bench. You’ll also find Ashley Meyer, the first researcher hired on by Wes Warren. “This is a brand-new lab. Dr. Warren came from Washington University in Saint Louis, and he didn’t bring anything with him…
June 7, 2018
Stephanie Scott #IAmScience
Stephanie Scott, a biochemistry major, works in the Thelen Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center Students choose colleges for a number of reasons: location, price, programs offered. Stephanie Scott was just a kid the first time she stepped onto Mizzou’s campus, and she knew it was the school for her. “We took a field trip, and I fell in love with the place because it had three swimming pools,” Scott said. While that’s not a typical selling point for places of higher education, it…
May 25, 2018
Andrea Ravelo #IAmScience
Andrea Ravelo, a Ph.D. candidate in Chris Pires’ lab. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center Mizzou is a family tradition for some. It’s passed down from generation to generation of Tigers as more and more family members join the lineage of “True Sons and Daughters.” Andrea Ravelo, a Ph.D. candidate in Chris Pires’ Lab at Bond LSC, came to Mizzou to continue that trend. “My parents went to Mizzou as graduate students when I was a baby,” Ravelo said. “After I finished my undergraduate degree, I decided…
May 18, 2018
Maria Boftsi #IAmScience
Maria Boftsi, a Ph. D candidate, stands near her lab station in the Pintel Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond LSC Change is hard. Especially when you’re comparing weather, like Maria Boftsi, a second year Ph.D. student in the Pintel Lab at Bond LSC, did. From the sunny skies of a small town in Northern Greece, where she’s originally from, to the contrastingly harsh winter of mid-Missouri, Boftsi was in for a lot of change when she came to Mizzou. “The summer after…
May 3, 2018
Mark Schroeder #IAmScience
Mark Schroeder, a Ph.D. candidate, works in Lloyd Sumner’s lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I like to learn how things work from the deepest level.” For most people, a television breaking or a computer shutting down is annoying at best. It means they’ll have to embark on the often drawn out process of choosing a newer, more expensive version to purchase. Fortunately, Mark Schroeder isn’t most people. “If I have something that breaks, I’ll take it apart just to see if I can put it back together,”…
April 27, 2018
Ben Spears #IAmScience
Ben Spears, a Ph.D. candidate, works in the Gassmann Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC “#IAmScience because science is like solving a puzzle, and I can take any scientific question and boil the results down to chip away at much greater puzzles.” By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center Like a lot of science majors, Ben Spears had plans to go to medical school after graduating with his bachelor’s degree. That is until he realized the very sight of blood makes his stomach turn. So, it was back to…
April 20, 2018
Sam Smith #IAmScience
Sam Smith, a freshman plant sciences major, works in Walter Gassmann’s lab in Bond LSC. | Photo by Allison Scott, Bond LSC “#IAmScience because I overcame my doubts and was able to find my place within the field.” By Allison Scott | Bond Life Sciences Center It’s no secret that science is intimidating. The test tubes, white coats and field-specific jargon paint a picture of a field that’s difficult — sometimes too difficult for some people to imagine themselves being in. Sam Smith, a freshman studying plant sciences through the Freshman Research in Plant Science…