Uncategorized
Feb. 27, 2020
#IAmScience: Kamlendra Singh
By Jerry Duggan|Bond LSC Kamal Singh was in the town of Allahabad in his native India, preparing for competitive exams to become a government official. As he craned his head to the left, he saw a highly respected official getting berated by an arrogant and disrespectful political leader. While Singh always knew that, in these positions, one was under the government’s thumb to an extent, that incident was what sealed the deal for him and made him realize he did not want to spend his life simply taking orders and being subject to verbal abuse by corrupt politicians. …
Feb. 26, 2020
One step closer
Christian Lorson poses next to a microscope in his lab. | photo by Lauren Hines, Bond LSC. By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC From developing a question to discovering a potential solution and putting it into practice, the journey from research to practical application is a long one. Nevertheless, each step brings that solution one step closer to reality. Shift Pharmaceuticals — the brainchild of Bond LSC’s Chris Lorson — has taken another of those steps with a new patent issued last month and meetings with the Food and Drug Administration in October 2019. Lorson…
Feb. 21, 2020
#IAmScience George Stewart
By Becca Wolf | Bond LSC Medical bacteriologist, George Stewart has had a few stops along the way before he got to Bond LSC in 2004. Having done schooling and research at universities from the midwest to the east coast, it has been a long journey filled with many ups and downs, but a rewarding one at that. Stewart hadn’t always wanted to be a medical bacteriologist though, “When I was going to college, I actually wanted to be a marine biologist,” he says, “And then my sophomore year in college, I took a microbiology course. And that…
Feb. 10, 2020
Coming to a crossroads
Janlo Robil submitted the piece above entitled, “Auxin Motherboard” to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in October 2019. | photo contributed by Janlo Robil, Bond LSC By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC The scene of the science fair wouldn’t be complete without the paper mâché volcano, the gymnasium full of colorful display boards set up across a floor and the voices of students each giving their own presentations to their parents. For Janlo Robil — a Ph.D. candidate in plant development genetics who works in the Paula McSteen lab at Bond LSC — his excitement…
Feb. 7, 2020
#IAmScience Sanzida Rahman
By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Growing up in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, Sanzida Rahman longed for space to grow a garden. She often grew plants and vegetables on small windowsills and the roof of her home, making the most of what little space she had. From an early age, Rahman, a doctoral student in Walter Gassmann’s lab at Bond LSC, fell in love with agriculture. She remembers visiting her family in a small village of Bangladesh every year and helping her uncles, grandparents and cousins on the farm. …
Feb. 6, 2020
Bringing in talent: New labs look for recruiting edge at annual event
George Smith, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, speaks at the Joint Recruitment Weekend at Bond LSC. |Photo by Jerry Duggan, Bond LSC By Jerry Duggan | Bond LSC It was an entirely new process for Henry (XiuFeng) Wan as he spent part of last weekend wooing potential graduate students at the 11th annual Graduate Life Sciences Joint Recruitment Weekend at the Bond Life Sciences Center. As a relatively new faculty member, Wan took his first stab at recruiting in a way he’s never had to before. Previously having worked for years at Mississippi State University, he has never had…
Jan. 14, 2020
Stepping into their own
Two Bond Life Sciences Center researchers find their path in teaching and research Sarah Unruh and Vinit Shanbhag have both taken paths that have led them toward teaching positions and fellowships. By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC As one semester closes and another begins, Sarah Unruh finds herself at the start of a new chapter of her life—this time at the front of the classroom. A newly appointed assistant professor at Illinois College, Unruh only had a handful of weeks to create syllabi, craft lesson plans and pack up her entire life to prepare…
Dec. 30, 2019
Stopping transport: How limiting copper can combat cancer
Vinit Shanbhag (left) is pictured with a few of his co-collaborators Nikita Gudekar, Michael Petris (principal investigator), Kimberly Jasmer and Aslam Khan (from left to right). | Photo by Jinghong Chen, Bond LSC By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC We find copper in currency, electrical equipment and jewelry, but it also plays an essential role within our bodies. From its use in the production of red blood cells to maintaining healthy bones, blood vessels, nerves and immune function, a tiny level of copper makes us function. But recent research points to a darker side: its…
Dec. 13, 2019
#IAmScience Madison Green
By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC It’s hard for a sixth-grader to nail down exactly what she wants to do for the rest of her life, but that’s when the process started for Madison Green. After all, it isn’t the easiest of decisions. With a wide range of possibilities, it can be hard for anyone to be truly sure of a decision that will shape the rest of their life. For Green, a junior biology and public health dual major, her path shifted toward science when she joined Science Olympiad, a national nonprofit organization dedicated…
Nov. 25, 2019
A return to mentor: Gant advises on PREP for Ph.D.’s
Kristal Gant, a former MU PREP Scholar and current Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison | photo by Roger Meissen, Bond LSC By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC Kristal Gant is a long way from the student she was when she donned a lab coat and wielded a pipette in labs at Bond Life Sciences Center nearly four years ago. As she stood in front of a group of MU students hoping to one day follow their own routes to graduate school, Gant recounted her long and winding path to her Ph.D. program at…
Nov. 22, 2019
#IAmScience Rachel Martin
By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC Rachel Martin always faced challenges head-on. As a budding freshman who began her college career in the School of Journalism, she switched to biological sciences, tackled a double major in music, joined two research labs and kept up with clubs throughout her undergraduate career. Through it all, she has maintained an unwavering ambitious spirit. Now in her final year, Martin has wrapped up her music degree and enjoys a more relaxed course load than she’s used to. From freshman to junior year, she often took over 18 credit hours at…
Nov. 19, 2019
A blight-free future
Bond LSC scientist works with global consortium to eliminate costly rice disease Rice terraces in Sapa, Vietnam: Rice is the world’s most important food plant, playing a vital role for nutrition in Asia and Africa in particular. In those countries, rice is generally grown by small farmers. If their fields are infected by bacterial blight, their very existence is threatened. | Photo by HHU / Sarah M. Schmidt By Mariah Cox | Bond LSC COLUMBIA, Mo. – Deep in the basement of the Bond Life Sciences Center is a small room emanating neon purple…