University of Missouri

Sep. 23, 2019

Beyond the visible: building a microscope that takes a quantum leap

Researchers from MU, the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are building a microscope that doesn’t yet exist. Depending on their size, quantum dots emit different colors of light. By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Tiny neon dots speckle a black backdrop – and no, this isn’t a Hasbro Lite Brite. Rather, these fluorescent dots indicate something about plants that scientists research and help them see the genes, traits and molecules they study amid thousands of possibilities. To help in seeing that, a new imaging microscope will allow researchers to better pinpoint molecular interactions in…

Sep. 3, 2019

University funding moves cancer-targeting research forward

Cross-collaborative research team looks to refine delivery of cancer treatments David Porciani, Josiah Smith, Leah Cardwell, Mark Daniels, Bret Ulery and Donald Burke | Photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC “When you want to use a tool to do something in the house, you have to use the right size tool. It does no good to use a large screwdriver to fix the tiny screw on your glasses.” That’s Donald Burke, Bond Life Sciences Center lead primary investigator, as he begins to explain a project looking to optimize the targeting of cancer…

Aug. 16, 2019

Robots and Africa: Tech transfer accelerates data collection

Ke Gao and Sam McInturf reveal Sun Bear to presidents and administrators of UWC and MU. By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Fourteen days. That’s how long it took Sam McInturf and Ke Gao to put together a root imaging machine named ‘Sun Bear’ at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa this past June. The pair, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Bond LSC’s David Mendoza and a computer science Ph.D. candidate, brought the automated approach to capturing data on root growth abroad as part of a technology transfer collaboration under…

May 12, 2019

Understanding a hijacker

Figuring out how a virus takes over cells could help with gene therapy Kinjal Majumder and David Pintel | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC When we catch a cold or contract the flu, we usually attribute it to picking up a virus from a friend or someone we know. Our bodies’ built-up immune systems have a way of attacking viruses to help us stay healthy, but sometimes viruses can hide. A study published in eLife by lead researcher Kinjal Majumder, a postdoctoral fellow in the Bond LSC lab of David Pintel,…

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 11, 2019

The problem with placentas

MU scientists develop model to study complex pregnancy disease Here, stem cells have undergone differentiation. The green shows the hormone used to diagnose pregnancy in humans and the ovals are nuclei, some of which stain a pinkish color, representing the protein GATA2. By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC Researchers have been exploring the complicated and difficult world of pluripotent stem cells for 15 long years on the second floor of the University of Missouri’s Bond Life Sciences Center. A type of stem cell that can be turned into any cell in the human body and…

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. 27, 2019

B TrCP protein required for HIV to hide in host cells

Researchers are one step closer to understanding HIV By Danielle Pycior | Bond LSC Usually, the human immune system is good at recognizing infected cells and then killing them, but in the case of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus has ways to hide.  One of the ways is by using a viral protein called Vpu. Vpu helps HIV survive by hiding the fact that it is infected from its host cells. For the past few years, researchers at the University of Missouri have helped uncover how this works. “If you delete Vpu, those virus-infected cells…

July 25, 2018

A shift in focus: Lorson moves basic research to drug development

By Roger Meissen & Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC It takes a lot to move a discovery from lab bench to an application that can provide therapeutic benefits to those suffering from disease. Bond LSC’s Chris Lorson is making moves to bridge that gap with the start of Shift Pharmaceuticals. With its formation in March 2017, Lorson adds co-founder and Chief Science Officer of the company to his list of titles that include Bond LSC investigator, professor of veterinary pathobiology and associate dean for research and graduate studies. Shift Pharmaceuticals builds off of years of progress the Lorson Lab has…

July 20, 2018

#IAmScience K’Imani Davis

By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC From hate to passion. One class changed senior K’Imani Davis’s mind, who is now going into her senior year working in the Anand Chandrasekhar lab at Bond LSC. “I used to actually hate science, and when I say hate, I hated it,” Davis said. “Senior year of high school I took AP Bio, I loved it. I don’t know what happened, but I started to try and I liked the subject.” After Davis’s change of heart, she decided to start out at MU as a biology major, and she is now going…

Aug. 18, 2017

Drowning in Data

New web-based framework helps scientists analyze and integrate data By Emily Kummerfeld | Bond LSC Large-scale data analysis on computers is not exactly what comes to mind when thinking about biological research. But these days, the potential benefit of work done in the lab or the field depends on them. That’s because often research doesn’t focus on a single biological process, but must be viewed within the context of other processes. Known as multi-omics, this particular field of study seeks to draw a clearer picture of dynamic biological interactions from gigantic amounts of data. But, how exactly can scientists suitably…

Aug. 11, 2017

Beverly Agtuca #IAmScience

Beverly Agtuca was born in New York, but has family in the Philippines, a country that struggles with malnutrition and undernourishment. Her overall goal for her research is to help countries that struggle with undernourishment by increasing the agricultural productivity in those countries. “When I was little, I went on summer vacation to visit my family, which included my grandmother in the Philippines,” she said. “Everyday my grandmother wanted me to go out to the rice fields from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. with the other children to get rice for our meals. That was not…