The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is an independent, not-for-profit research institute dedicated to plant science located in the Creve Coeur community of

Saint Louis County, Missouri St. Louis County is located in the eastern-central portion of Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. At the 2020 census, th ...

, United States. It was founded in 1998 by William Henry Danforth, chancellor emeritus of

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

and named after his father, and established through a $60 million gift from the Danforth Foundation, a $50 million gift from the Monsanto Fund, the donation of 40 acres of land from Monsanto, and $25 million in tax credits from the State of Missouri. The Center has a $30 million annual operating budget, a $300 million endowment, and 242 employees, including 30

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

s. It is home to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels and the International Institute for Crop Improvement. The Danforth Center Core Facilities include

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

, integrated

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

phenotyping In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

, plant growth,

proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replication of DNA. In ...

and

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

, and

tissue culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, su ...

and transformation. Services are offered to both internal and external clients, and training/access is available to scientists interested in developing knowledge and skills.

History

Founded in 1998 through the efforts of William Henry Danforth, chancellor emeritus of

, the Center was established with a $60 million gift from the Danforth Foundation, a $50 million gift from the Monsanto Fund, the donation of 40 acres of land from Monsanto, and $25 million in tax credits from the State of Missouri. The founding chairman was William Henry Danforth with Ernest G. Jaworski as director. Roger N. Beachy became the first president in 1999. The Danforth Center building was sustainably designed by

Nicholas Grimshaw Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, CBE, PPRA (born 9 October 1939) is a prominent English architect, particularly noted for several modernist buildings, including London's Waterloo International railway station and the Eden Project in Cornwall. He was Pre ...

and opened in October 2001. On September 24, 2009, Beachy was appointed by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

to be the first director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). James C. Carrington is the current president and chief executive officer. He joined the Center in 2011. In June 2009 the first building of the new Bio-Research & Development Growth (BRDG) Park biotechnology incubator opened on the Danforth Center campus. In April 2016, the William Henry Danforth Wing opened. Surrounding the buildings are six acres of reconstructed native Missouri prairie.

Programs

The VIRCA Plus (Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa Plus) research program, formerly just VIRCA, is coordinated with

Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries or the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA or MoA) is a government ministry of Kenya. Its head office is in the Kilimo House in Nairobi.Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

's National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI).

References

External links

* {{Authority control Independent research institutes Buildings and structures in St. Louis County, Missouri 1998 establishments in Missouri Non-profit organizations based in Missouri