Faculty and students crowded the hallways at Bond Life Sciences Center for an interdisciplinary poster session on Saturday. About 40 prospective graduate students listened to faculty and current graduate students from the biochemistry, interdisciplinary plant group, plant sciences, molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics (MPT), genetics area program and the life sciences fellowship program discuss their work.
The poster session was part of the 2015 Graduate Life Sciences Joint Recruitment Weekend, an event aimed at helping prospective graduate students determine if MU is the right place for them to continue their education. About 175 people participated, including current graduate students and faculty.
MU biochemistry senior Flore N’guessan said she applied to the MPT program because of her interest in virology.
“I’ve always wanted to do research,” she said.
N’guessan is currently a researcher in the Burke lab, which works on testing potential antiviral therapeutics on HIV. N’guessan has applied to other graduate programs but said that the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of MU’s life sciences program appeals to her because it allows her to gain skills from other labs.
“It’s a collaborative and interdisciplinary university,” Dr. Jay Thelen, an associate professor of biochemistry, said. “That’s what this weekend highlights.”
Thelen emphasized that the benefit of events like the interdisciplinary poster session allows prospective students to see the diversity of science studied at Bond LSC and in labs throughout MU. And, he said, “It’s exciting to see how many students there are.”
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