Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Federal research funding was down 25% last year, but Danforth Center President Giles Oldroyd says the Center is built to weather it. In a new Q&A with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he talks about the changing funding landscape, why philanthropy is key to turning discoveries into real-world impact for farmers and the food system, and what it takes to keep agricultural science moving forward.

Read more at the link in the comments.

Meet Keith and Howard Duncan, a father and son whose curiosity has shaped how we understand the world around us.

Howard's medical research helped change how doctors understand bone health. Decades later, his son Keith found his own calling at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, using rare imaging technology to study plants up close.

Now in his 90s, Howard still visits Keith's lab every year to learn “where we are, where we are we going, and what's new.”

Read their story at the link in the comments.

Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton was a pioneer of modern plant biotechnology. She was instrumental in early research in microbiology and plant biology, showing how DNA was transferred from bacterial cells to plant cells. It was as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis that her work led to the development of technologies that she and others used to develop the first transgenic plant in 1982. This groundbreaking research paved the way for the many contributions provided by plant biotechnology, at a time when the field offered few paths for women.

In 2002, the Danforth Center honored that legacy with the Danforth Award for Plant Science, presented by then-president Roger Beachy.

Dr. Chilton passed away on June 24 at the age of 87. Her loss is felt across the plant science community this week, and we're grateful for the door she opened for every scientist who has walked through it since.

Read more about her lasting impact on the St. Louis plant science community at the link in the comments.