Several graduate students got a chance Friday on Bone-Muscle Day to hone their research presentations, which they will be making in two weeks at a national conference.

Seven research posters were on display in the School of Dentistry, and several faculty members and other students asked questions and offered comments on the work.

“This is an excellent opportunity to improve, having so many other eyes on the poster,” said Loretta Laughrey, a doctoral candidate studying the effects of weight bearing on bone development. Several comments were written on her poster, which she will incorporate into her final version.

The UMKC Center of Excellence in the Study of Dental and Musculoskeletal Tissues sponsors Bone-Muscle Day each year to help students prepare for the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research’s annual meeting. This year that event will be Sept. 20-23 in Orlando, Florida.

“The center invites anyone from the region who wants to come,” said Mark Johnson, PhD, the center’s director, and professor and chair of the school’s Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences.

This year that invitation drew two presenters from the University of Missouri Department of Biochemistry in Columbia, along with five from UMKC.

Charlotte Phillips, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry and director of graduate education at MU, said her graduate students “appreciate this opportunity to identify improvements they can make in their research presentations. The musculoskeletal group at UMKC is a great resource.”

The center also fosters collaboration across UMKC. Besides School of Dentistry faculty, the mentors for the research on display for Bone-Muscle Day included Ganesh Thiagarajan, PhD, PE, professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and Michael Wacker, PhD, associate professor, associate dean for academic affairs and vice chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the School of Medicine.

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