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The MU biochemistry professor has led groundbreaking research on the soybean – In Vox Magazine

The MU biochemistry professor has led groundbreaking research on the soybean

A conversation with: Gary Stacey (Click here to the original story)

BY HUDSON KYLE (Vox magazine)

Much of Gary Stacey’s research hinges on the soybean. The bean is Missouri’s No. 1 crop and the No. 1 vegetable oil in the U.S. Photograph by Harry Katz.

According to a Michigan State study, only 28 percent of adults in the U.S. are considered literate when it comes to science. American students are falling further behind their international peers in mathematics and science testing.

Gary Stacey, an biochemistry professor at MU, says it’s odd that technology is developing at a rapid pace and the world is becoming so much more technologically engaged, yet in many ways, we’re doing a poor job educating people and preparing them for this change.

Stacey and a team from the MU Legume-Microbe Interactions Laboratory hold an annual professional development workshop for Missouri high school science teachers. The workshop offers both the practical knowledge and the physical tools needed to conduct plant experiments in the classroom.

Stacey has led groundbreaking research of the soybean, Missouri’s top cash crop, in his lab, one of the largest on MU’s campus. His research has helped explain what makes the soybean more resilient to adverse growing conditions and contributed to the completion of the soybean genome sequence, which determines an organism’s DNA makeup.

How did you first discover your passion and knack for science?

I think one of the key characteristics of a scientist is curiosity. My dad tells me that when I was a little kid, he used to take me fishing. Instead of fishing, I would be turning over all the rocks. I just wanted to know what was underneath the rocks. Basically, what I’m doing now is turning over rocks, just in a different way. I think a key characteristic is curiosity. If you’re curious, you find ways to maintain that. Science does that for me.

Much of your research involves the soybean. Explain the plant’s significance.

It shouldn’t be hard to understand the importance of the soybean. In most of the Midwest, corn is the No. 1 crop. In Missouri, the soybean is the No. 1 crop. It’s the No. 1 crop in value. It’s the No. 1 crop in acreage. So it’s a very, very important crop.

What do you think the consequences will be if the U.S. science literacy rate continues to decrease

When you talk about the three countries that are fastest growing, you’re talking about Brazil, India and China. Huge investments are taking place there. Especially the Chinese are making huge investments in education, and it’s having an impact.

The fact that we’re an economic power feeds into the fact that we’re a military power, which feeds into the fact that we have geopolitical influence. If we lose our economic power by falling behind, which we already are, then that will affect our military stature and will also undermine our geopolitical influence. That will probably create instability in the world.

 

What is the goal of your teacher-training workshop?

 

Our major objective is to try to get more plant science-related experiments and teaching into the classroom. So often in the classroom, they’ll use an environmental example, or they’ll use a human medical example. That’s all well and good, but we would like to see more plant science being taught. The other objective of these workshops is that I engage my post-doctoral associates. They’re in the laboratory. They’re doing the experiments. But most of them have never had experience in trying to teach clientele like high school teachers.

We’re also able to buy supplies, so the teachers who participate in our workshop actually go home with a big box of stuff. We even get them a light stand they can put in their classroom to grow plants. We provide them with potting materials and seeds and everything they need. It’s all provided for them.

What drives you to give back to the community in the form of this workshop?

It’s fun. You only get one go-around. I wish I realized when I was younger that basically you get one bite at the apple. The other thing is that humans are social animals. You really find that your most enjoyment is dealing with other people. So if you can interact with other people and feel good about what you’ve done, it’s just fun. That’s really what it’s all about. I’m talking about the fun that makes you feel good about yourself.

Missouri just doesn’t invest in schools the way it should. Here in Columbia, a lot of our students until recently were being educated in trailers. I just don’t understand why we don’t make more of an investment.

Dr. Gary Stacey received the Mumford Outstanding Faculty Award 2013

In recognition of his excellence in research performance; national and international recognition; and special contributions to education; the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources has rewarded Dr Gary Stacey  the Mumford Outstanding Faculty Award.

 

“Gary is a renowned leader in the field of plant biology and plant-microbe interactions,” said CAFNR Dean Tom Payne. “In addition to receiving three elected fellowship awards, the far-reaching impact of his research achievements is evident in numerous patents and highly cited refereed publications, in addition to worldwide invitations to lecture.” Click here to see the full story about the annual Celebration of Excellence Award ceremony on April 11 to honor outstanding faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of The College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) at the University of Missouri.

 

In 2007, Dr Gary Stacey received the Mumford Distinguished Research Award.  Follow this link to see details about this prestige award http://cafnr.missouri.edu/coe/mumford/.

MU’s soybean database is a resource for scientists around the world

Yo Soy Información
MU’s soybean database is a resource for scientists around the world.
Published Feb. 13, 2013
Piece by piece, data set by data set, Dong Xu is making the University of Missouri the world’s headquarters for soybean information.
If you want data about soy’s genetic makeup and expression, protein activation, or which metabolites are associated with higher oil or protein content, Xu has it. A lot of it.
Hundreds of gigabytes of data make up the Soybean Knowledge Base (SoyKB). Xu, the James C. Dowell Professor and chair of the computer science department, continues to grow the database to make studying soybeans easier, faster and more efficient.
Xu doesn’t generate the data himself. He’s been gathering it for three years from collaborators at MU and around the country, as well as collecting it from journal articles.
“We mine the data and integrate the data — that is, we combine all the things to make a biological hypothesis,” Xu says. “It’s a very user-friendly … analysis tool online.”
One tool Xu is working on would identify genotype-phenotype relationships: finding the genetic basis (genotype) for an outward characteristic (phenotype). Narrowing the search for genetic causes of desirable traits (such as drought resistance) speeds the process of breeding for that trait.
One of Xu’s main collaborators is Gary Stacey. Stacey says SoyKB is tackling one of the biggest challenges facing science in the 21st century: understanding complexity.
It’s one thing to know all the amino acids that make up an organism’s genome. The challenge now is to understand what those genes do, how they interact, how changes in one can affect another and how environment influences all of that.
“SoyKB is a Web-based tool to address those issues,” Stacey says. “After we have a place to store, analyze and integrate [data], we hope to take the knowledge there and get a better understanding” of soybeans.
Stacey says Xu is continuing to improve the integration of dissimilar data sets to allow scientists to see connections and relationships that haven’t been discovered before.
Scientists around the globe use the online database, and Xu hopes to expand beyond soybeans. His next project is to build a similar database for grapes, which are becoming an economically important crop in Missouri.
Xu wants universities elsewhere in the world to use his template to create organism-specific databases on locally important animals and crops.
“There is a big need,” Xu says. “We hope to provide a generic platform people can use.”

Saying Thank You to a Great Leader and Co-Founder of The Missouri Energy Initiative

Gary Stacey was an original founding board member of the Missouri Energy Initiative. As with many things and many facets of our lives people move on, goals change and projectscome to an end and new ones are formed. In 2012 Gary recognized that MEI had moved beyond the volunteer run startup nonprofit he helped start in 2010 and had begun operating like a full-fledged seasoned organization. With this thought in mind, Gary began the process of moving away from the board and finding a suitable replacement.

 

Gary’s mission as a board member of the Missouri Energy Initiative was to do what was best for the organization and he once again put the organization first. On his own, Gary worked diligently with his partners at the University, specifically Dean Thomas Payne (Dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri), to find a replacement from the University of Missouri-Columbia that could provide MEI the level of expertise, input, and campus reach MEI needed to better support the University assets and for those assets to better collaborate with MEI.

 

It is without a doubt, as you can tell from the quotes below from MEI Board of Directors, that this organization would not have existed had Gary not provided the initiative to bring together such a unique group of university, political, and business leaders to find better ways to increase energy related economic development, support for energy innovation, research, and most of all, a way to find answers to tough questions we can all agree on.

 

Gary has provided many hours of support to the organization and there is no doubt that his presence, and advice will be missed. I am sure that his commitment to Missouri and science will bring him around when needed, and I for one am thankful for that.

 

Key Successes of Gary Stacey tenure:

  • First Volunteer Executive Director of Missouri Energy Initiative
  • Organization and launch of MEI’s first Energy Summit in 2010
  • Creation of the MEI Website
  • Smooth transition from a volunteer run organization to a professionally staffed organizations
  • Growth of the MEI Board of Directors from its original few to more than 15
  • Creation of MEI Mission and Goals

What Gary means to MEI according to MEI Board of Directors

 

Rob Duncan – I remember when Gary first approached me four years ago about the possibility of establishing a non-profit to advance state energy policy and research, which would later become MEI. I was inspired by his leadership, and I quickly offered my full support and my willingness to assist throughout the non-profit’s formation. At this first meeting, which took place in at a restaurant near the MU campus, we discussed the importance of this effort leaving a leadership legacy for the State of Missouri, which clearly MEI is on track to deliver. I am very impressed regarding how MEI has progressed, and I am very grateful to Gary for his determined leadership as MEI was initiated.

 

Steve Kidwell – MEI would never have gotten off the ground without Gary’s support and leadership. In so many ways, I am grateful to him for seeing the potential in our vision and applying his talents and resources to setting a firm foundation for the organization.

 

Roger Walker – Gary Stacey doggedly and successfully pursued a shared vision that we could engage in a smarter discussion of energy issues at every level – an “honest-brokered” discussion within the safe harbors of MEI that would bring together divergent interests and talents, establish a purpose and mission for MEI, and create the opportunity to fulfill our mission for the benefit of the entire State.

 

Jim Fischer – Gary is an internationally recognized successful plant scientist and biochemistry professor and holds the Endowed Professor of Soybean Biotechnology Chair at the University of Missouri. Gary is not only a very distinguished scientists but also he is a visionary. He understood that energy is critical to the future success of Missouri and these United States. Perhaps energy is not in the forefront of Gary’s academic pursuits however he forged forward to assist in creating MEI because he is an individual who has the ability to vision key issues impacting our state AND the leadership abilities to turn a vision into reality.

 

Alan Marble – Most successful organizations lay claim to a founding father… and in my view, Gary Stacey served selflessly and tirelessly in that role for MEI. We will forever be indebted to him for the vision, energy, and organizational skill he contributed to the establishment of MEI.

(Original story)