Plant science center breaks ground today
Robert Steyer
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

When the directors of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center unveiled their goals 12 months ago, they invited former President Jimmy Carter, a strong advocate for using new technologies to improve the world's food supply.

And when they conduct the center's groundbreaking Monday they will hear from Rita R. Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, the U.S. agency that spends more than $3 billion a year on grants for research and education projects.

It's no surprise that the Danforth Center is attracting people with the political clout of Carter, who has spent much time in developing countries promoting efforts to combat hunger, and the scientific clout of Colwell, a marine biologist with a strong biotechnology background.

The center is offering itself as a source of independent research for all plant sciences - not just biotechnology. It's to be a place where researchers can work on food and agriculture issues without having to beg for government grants or to be governed by a corporation's bottom line.

Independence will be the key to credibility, say the people who created the center, the scientist who runs it and members of the scientific community outside St. Louis who are watching it develop.

The institution was created by the Missouri Botanical Garden, Monsanto Co., Washington University and the University of Missouri. The University of Illinois and Purdue University have joined as academic partners. The center is named after the late Donald Danforth, former president of Ralston Purina Co.

Most of the center's $146 million startup money has come from Monsanto and its charitable division, the Monsanto Fund, as well as from the Danforth Foundation. Monsanto's contribution includes the land for the center, which is being built in Creve Coeur at the northwest corner of Olive Boulevard and Warson Road.

Monsanto and the Danforth Foundation received $25 million in state tax credits for the project.

Originally due to open in July 2000, the center is running behind schedule. Its opening is now scheduled for June 2001. Design changes have pushed up construction cost to $75 million from $60 million.

Although some critics carp about Monsanto's role, the directors have insisted that the company won't steer research at the center, which retains all rights to research by its scientists.

Roger N. Beachy, the center's president, has said he wouldn't have taken the job if he believed Monsanto would exercise undue influence. Since getting hired, he has allayed the fears of others in the agricultural science field.

"I think they are more independent of Monsanto than people give them credit," said Gary Toenniessen, deputy director for agricultural sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation. "Roger Beachy has convinced me because I challenged him on it."

Toenniessen said the best way the Danforth Center could distinguish itself from other institutions would be to forgo patenting discoveries and licensing them to corporations. "That limits the public sector's ability to share," he said.

Richard E. Stuckey said the Danforth Center can provide "an innovative way" of collaboration among corporate, university and government research if it can attract many partners to support research.

"I hope they can produce nonproprietary results that can be shared with the scientific community," said Stuckey, executive vice president for the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, an umbrella organization for 38 scientific groups. "They should produce a broader mix of support for research than is found at universities."

Stuckey's comments were echoed by A. Ann Sorensen, director of the Center for Agriculture in the Environment at the American Farmland Trust, a land conservation group based in DeKalb, Ill.

"I'd say a majority of university researchers get private sector research funds because public funds are drying up," she said.

That aid, however, often comes with corporate strings attached. The Danforth Center "could be unique if their researchers are given the freedom to focus on more long-term projects and more complex projects" than are allowed by corporate grants, Sorensen said.

"If Roger Beachy has the freedom to hire the best people, and they don't have to worry about running around raising money, they can do all sorts of things," Sorensen added.

Beachy hired two prominent scientists last month, the first of the 15 senior researchers the center wants to hire. He hopes to hire several more by the end of the year.

The scientists are Claude M. Fauquet and Jeffrey Skolnick. Both worked at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., where Beachy had directed the division of plant biology for eight years. Like Beachy, both previously taught at Washington University.

Skolnick specializes in computational biology and bioinformatics, the science of predicting how proteins work and a first step in learning how to diagnose and treat diseases.

Fauquet is co-founder with Beachy of the International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology, which trains scientists from developing nations so they can return to their home countries and educate others about ways to improve the quantity and quality of crops. The program will relocate to the Danforth Center from Scripps.

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