Uncategorized
July 6, 2018
Bond LSC offers ample research opportunities for undergrads
IMSD Director Brian Booton poses with the 2018 IMSD fellows. photo by Roger Meissen | Bond LSC By Allison Scott | Bond LSC Research at the undergraduate level offers more than meets the eye. With students from every year of their undergraduate careers working in Bond LSC, it’s a great opportunity to acquire skills and experience. Linda Blockus, head of the Undergraduate Research office in 150 Bond LSC, advises students to get started early and be proactive. “I encourage students who are interested in research to talk to people and network,” Blockus said. “Talk to your professors, advisors…
June 29, 2018
#IAmScience David Porciani
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC David Porciani was inspired into a science career. Growing up along the Mediterranean Sea in Livorno, Italy, Porciani was fascinated with all different types of science, until he met two high school mentors. “They inspired me,” said Porciani, who now works in the Burke Lab at Bond LSC. “They were both chemistry teachers, and I have always been fascinated with studying chemistry in biological systems.” One of his mentors words to him stuck with him and shape how he decides what direction to explore. “He said try to ask yourself not obvious…
June 22, 2018
Ha Duong #IAmScience
By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC 8,124 miles. That’s how far Ph.D. student Ha Duong traveled from home to work in the Stacey Lab at Bond LSC. Duong came from her home in Vietnam where she studied plant sciences at Hanoi University of Agriculture. A chance encounter brought her to MU. “Back in my last year of undergrad, a professor from MU came and gave a talk,” Duong said. “I thought about MU. I then received a fellowship then chose here. I got it so it is destiny.” With some questionable looks from her mother when she first…
June 17, 2018
A sound generational difference
Scientists are seeing changes in vocal patterns in the grandoffspring of California mice exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA. Photo by Roger Meissen | Bond LSC Endocrine disruptors alter baby mice calls generations later By Roger Meissen | Bond LSC The sounds can seem like a mix between a bird tweet and a high-pitched scream to us, but these vocalizations that baby California mice make are essential to how they communicate with their parents and siblings. Exposure of grandparent mice to bisphenol A (BPA) and related endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may alter that communication in…
June 15, 2018
Rowan Karvas #IAmScience
Rowan Karvas, a Ph.D candidate at Mizzou, works in the Roberts Lab in Bond LSC. | photo by Erica Overfelt, Bond LSC By Erica Overfelt | Bond LSC Answering the unsolved questions is a lifetime commitment for fifth year Ph.D. candidate Rowan Karvas in the Roberts Lab at Bond LSC and Laura Schulz’s lab at the medical school in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department. Originally from St. Louis, Karvas came to Mizzou and found her keen for science through her undergrad research working on adult muscle cells, but it wasn’t until she became a technician in a…
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 10, 2018
Vivariums and The Hidden Metropolis Beneath Bond LSC
Bond LSC Facility Manager Dana Weir observes a family of rats in one of the vivariums. Photo by Raye Allen By Madelyne Maag You’ve heard of aquariums and terrariums, but probably not of a vivarium before. These enclosed structures take on a whole new meaning when science is brought into the picture. And little do people know when they walk across the main floor of Bond LSC, they are walking above a city-like work space where the occupants work to improve our lives. Vivariums functions as cubicles, condominiums and daycare centers for the rodents that live within…
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…