Big cash reserve powers vision for plant center here
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
September 23, 2011
By Georgina Gustin
Since James Carrington landed the lead role at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the center has seen an infusion of cash, adding to an already impressive endowment. In January, the Danforth Foundation announced its final gift to center -- roughly $70 million -- reaching a tally of nearly $230 million total.
With grants from the Gates Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy in its coffers, the center has grown into the world's premier plant science research center since its founding in 1999.
When Carrington was selected for the top job last fall, he stepped into a position vacated by Roger Beachy, the center's founding president, who left in October 2009 to run a new unit within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Beachy left his stamp on the center. And while Carrington plans to carry on the center's work with the help of newly refreshed cash reserves, he has some new visions, too.
What are some of the center's current major projects?
We have projects that focus on using algae as a source of oil. That source can be used as liquid fuel and in industrial applications. We have projects focused on making better feeds stocks that are not in competition with fuel stocks, and we're trying to understand how plants can be bred to do photosynthesis better and capture energy more efficiently and how that plant can convert energy into useful chemicals.
On the crop plant side, we have several projects that have humanitarian outcomes. We have major projects that focus on cassava, to make it more nutritious and resistant to disease.
What new shifts have happened since you became president?
We've had a major hiring spree. This is going to bring new programs, more genomics technology, more computations technology, more systems biology and more robotics. In other words, we think we're going to be able to do much more work faster than we did in the past.
Do you see the center's mission changing?
The mission of the Danforth Center will not change. It's a very direct, important mission: to improve the human conditions through plant science -- improving food, using plants to help the environment, to use plants science as a basis for industry or commercialization in the region. We see the St. Louis region as a real hub for the plant industry. We have great industry partners, like Monsanto, and major commodity groups.
What are some of the most pressing challenges facing farmers where the center's work can help?
Farmers and the agriculture sector are facing a lot of challenges, and none of those will go away in the future. One big area is sustainability. How can the farmer maintain productivity and keep costs down and do it with fewer inputs, including water and fertilizer? Water, we know, is a precious commodity. We use too much, and we're going to run out.
The way we do agriculture on a large sale is far from sustainable because of the pollution and the amount of damage we do. We need to conserve soil better, and we need to do agriculture with fewer applications of pesticides.
Of the center's current work, what is the closest to fruition?
When we talk about algae plants of biofuels, some of the breakthroughs that will be made here might happen in five or 10 years. When we talk about improving feed stocks that have humanitarian goals, those are on a five- or six-year time frame. In all cases, the science that we do here, with projects that are complete, is published for the public. There's very little science we do here that doesn't get into public hands.
