MU Bond Life Sciences Center

07/02/2025

We're excited to welcome Erin Sparks to Bond LSC as a joint hire with the Danforth Center. Her addition furthers our nterdisciplinary community.

“Erin impressed us with her creative combination of engineering and biology to understand organismal functions,” said Bond LSC Director Walter Gassmann. “It is this openness to new approaches that Bond LSC fosters, and we look forward to seeing Erin inspire new collaborations in the center, with the MU’s maize research community and as a joint hire with the Danforth Center in St. Louis.”

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center today announced two new faculty members. Justin Conover, PhD, joined as assistant member and Erin Sparks, PhD, joined as associate member at the Danforth Center and associate professor at the University of Missouri – Columbia (MU) a joint hire between the D...

06/26/2025

Matt Nelson is one face behind upkeep of scientific instruments and research facilities within Bond LSC. He's a key repository of information for the building's tech maintenance needs and one of the many who ping-pong across the building, hard at work.

Though he has a desk. Nelson's role relies on movement, and he averages 15,000 steps per day. He can often be seen, squatting with his computer in his lap, answering emails.

Like the scientists in labs at Mizzou, Nelson contributes to the many steps research requires. Read more about his role in keeping labs humming.

Matt Nelson is a research engineering technician with the Bond LSC facilities crew. They keep the buildings parts — from air handlers and refrigeration to electrical supplies and scientific instruments — running when problems arise. | photo by Roger Meissen, Mizzou Division of Research By Sophie...

05/27/2025

The COVID-19 pandemic offered a plethora of data for researchers. Jiacheng Xie of 's D**g Xu lab drew insight from the COVID-19 symptoms people shared on Twitter as they searched for answers.
Using AI, the PhD student now extracts this social media data to keep tabs on the disease and can see applications of his model for tracking other illnesses as they spread.

Mizzou researchers train AI models with social media posts to analysis COVID-19 By Sophie Rentschler | Bond LSC Social media is where some turn when they get sick, searching for what their symptoms mean and forms of treatment. People turned to Twitter to share symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic,....

05/13/2025

We're deeply saddened today to hear of the passing of Bond LSC's namesake, Christopher "Kit" Bond.

Our current director, Walter Gassmann, summed up our sentiments below:

"Senator Bond displayed an admirable commitment to investing in a better future through research. His many initiatives and years of public service continue to provide progress that promotes health, nutrition, and a sustainable environment for Missourians and the world."

Mizzou issued the following statement: https://showme.missouri.edu/2025/university-of-missouri-leaders-pay-tribute-to-former-u-s-sen-christopher-kit-bond/

photo: Kit Bond speaks to Thom Payne, vice chancellor for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, at the groundbreaking for the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center on September 8, 2001.

04/29/2025

Yen On Chan's computer engineering background has made him integral to a new study of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) where he builds 3D models of the impacts of OSA on children’s neurological functions.

As part of the bioinformatics lab of Bond LSC's Trupti Joshi, they looked at patient data to study OSA on a cellular level alongside researchers from Marshall University. Their work published in March in the journal Experimental Neurology.

How high-performance computing connects brain differences to apnea Adobe Stock image By Sophie Rentschler | Bond LSC A good night’s rest lays the foundation for your daily performance but when a child’s body hampers airflow, that can lead to cognitive problems in their waking lives. One recent M...

04/10/2025

What does it take to figure out how the parts of a plant cell work together to accomplish its many molecular tasks? One key aspect is being able to microscopically see the proteins, receptors and enzymes involved.

The Gary Stacey lab at Bond LSC has a longstanding collaboration with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory - EMSL to create a better way to image those cells using lattice light-sheet microscopy.

Mengran Yang genetically modifies model plants in the Stacey lab so scientists can see past the fluorescence of nearby chlorophyll and beyond the obstructing nature of the plant cell wall. Yang, a Mizzou postdoctoral fellow, sees her Arabidopsis plants during every life stage and is the last person to see the seeds off to their collaborators at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

The result is one more step toward better microscopy. The partnership recently published their most recent advances in the Biophysical Journal. Check out our story and links to the paper at https://ow.ly/kL2m50VyfQP

04/09/2025

Bond LSC scientist Susie Dai gave an early morning crash course on mushrooms and their sustainable potential during her Saturday Morning Science lecture on April 5, 2025. Huge thanks to all those that joined us!

03/20/2025

Susie Dai is a chemist by training and an engineer by practice, and she's turning wasted carbon materials into high-value products.
New to Bond LSC in late 2024, she brings experience from Texas A&M and a state regulatory agency in Iowa to her position as an engineering professor and Bond LSC principal investigator.
Welcome, Susie!
https://ow.ly/A0pT50VlSEg

03/17/2025

Thanks for spending part of your Saturday with us. Hearing MU biophysicist Maria Mills highlight how physical properties govern DNA, the molecule that carries genetic information for all life forms, made for a great Saturday Morning Science on March 15.

Join us next month to hear how mushrooms can serve as more than just food.
https://research.missouri.edu/saturday-morning-science

02/25/2025

Thanks for joining us Saturday. We loved hearing MU geological scientist Eric Sandvol explain how tectonic plates influenced Earth's evolution over millions of years and how scientists study the structure of the plates themselves Saturday, February 22.

Join the fun next month to hear a physicist's perspective on DNA. https://research.missouri.edu/saturday-morning-science