Welcome to the Sparks Developmental Biomechanics Lab! **WE'VE MOVED** The Sparks Lab is now at the University of Missouri and the Danforth Plant Science Center.
Research in the Sparks lab is focused on improving agricultural crop resilience to external forces (strong storms/winds). In agriculture, the failure of plants to stay upright is called lodging, and can have a dramatic impact on crop yields. In some crops specialized brace roots are hypothesized to play an important role in stability to prevent lodging.