One doesn’t have to travel far to be part of an important group. The Missouri Academy of Science held their annual meeting April 28.

Two biology students and one professor decided to attend, sharing and networking.

About the conference

Dr. Kyoungtae Kim, Vy Nguyen and Cullen Horstmann presented their research.

• Kim: Yeast dynamin for membrane fusion
• Nguyen: Yeast myosin 2 for the traffic bound to the trans-Golgi network (TGN)
• Horstmann: Silver nanoparticles on yeast viability with bioinformatics analysis

Nguyen is part of the Professional Science Master’s program. Horstmann is a senior biology major.

“For Vy and Cullen, this conference was an opportunity to expand their horizon,” Kim added. “In particular, for Vy, an international student, it was her first presentation in the USA, which is a significant leap in her science career.”

Kim, an associate dean for the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, expands on why this conference is also valuable for him as a professor.

“One of the main reasons I attend external conferences is to build networking in the field of my research,” Kim said. “This time I was able to find one researcher from a St. Louis University School of Medicine who has expertise in Mass-spec, and then I initiated a collaborative project of elucidating the 3-D surface structure of dynamin.”