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, United States. It was founded in 1998 by

William Henry Danforth William Henry Danforth II (April 10, 1926 – September 16, 2020) was a physician, professor of medicine, academic administrator, and philanthropist. He was chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1971 until 1995. He was the grandso ...

, 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 The Danforth Foundation was one of the largest private nonprofit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It closed its doors in 2011 after 84 years of operation and more than a billion dollars in grants distributed. Background Establish ...

, a $50 million gift from the Monsanto Fund, the donation of 40 acres of land from

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...

, 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, integrated microscopy, phenotyping, plant growth, proteomics and mass spectrometry, 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

, chancellor emeritus of

, the Center was established with a $60 million gift from the

, a $50 million gift from the Monsanto Fund, the donation of 40 acres of land from

, and $25 million in tax credits from the State of Missouri. The founding chairman was

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 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 ...

to be the first director of the

National Institute of Food and Agriculture The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is a U.S. federal government body whose creation was mandated in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. Its purpose is to consolidate all federally funded agricultural research, an ...

(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

Wing opened. Surrounding the buildings are six acres of reconstructed native Missouri

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

Programs

The VIRCA Plus (Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa Plus) research program, formerly just VIRCA, is coordinated with Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

'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