Bubatunde Studies Soybeans during Summer Semester
Brett Wathen
Science students at Manchester University have the opportunity to do research projects during the summer term: they work alongside professors in a professional environment that helps build professional experience.
Sefunmi Bubatunde, senior, worked with Dr. Jennifer Robison on a research project over the summer, studying the wounded pathway of soybeans and developing better methods in growing soybeans. By researching how the wounding affects the soybean plants, it can lead to a stronger crop yield as well as improving the overall quality of the plant.
The research consisted of wounding the soybeans every couple of hours and then collecting samples from the plants RNA to determine how wounding had changed. They decided to use soybeans is because it is one of the most economically advantageous plants in the United States. Soybeans are responsible for producing peanut and vegetable oil, biotech plastics, and plutonium substitutes. This kind of research can revolutionize the way we grow and take care of crops in the future, and can be beneficial towards helping grow other plant species.
Bubatunde is still actively doing research by analyzing the samples from the project, but says the research will be complete by the spring semester. She enjoyed her research with Dr. Robison, and that she definitely thinks she will be a part of more research in the future. She just prefers that it be more in the bioscience field rather than working exclusively with plants.
Bubatunde feels strongly about women’s health and, more specifically, female infertility, and how it has been ignored in the science community in the past. She would like to do some research in that field in the future at grad school: she plans to attend post graduate school in Texas or IUPUI and hopes to be an OBGYN.