Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Science is stronger when everyone can thrive. Happy Pride. We'll see you at the St. Louis Grand Pride Parade this weekend!

The Danforth Center has been named a Top Workplace by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a sixth consecutive year! 🏆

This recognition is especially meaningful for us because it's determined entirely by employee feedback. Our community members show up every day to advance plant science in service of global food security, sustainability, and agricultural innovation. We're proud that this is not only a purpose-driven workplace, but also somewhere where people feel supported, connected, and valued.

Thank you to every member of our community for making the Danforth Center what it is.

Our global food supply depends on pollinators. It's a fact that sits at the heart of what we do at the Danforth Center—and one that makes our longtime partnership with the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association (EMBA) feel especially meaningful.

EMBA keeps hives at the edge of our urban prairie, using the space as a learning yard for new and experienced beekeepers alike. This , we're sharing their story and the shared values that make this partnership work.

For ten weeks each summer, students in the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program are immersed in a rich research environment that lays the foundation for a career in plant science.

Last week, they shared that experience with REU students from Missouri Botanical Garden and Washington University in St. Louis. The next generation of scientists is in good hands and good company!

Never miss a story from the Danforth Center again! 🌿 By signing up for our monthly e-mail newsletter, On the Vine, you can stay up to date on our progress, learn about upcoming events, and more. Read the latest issue here: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/On-the-Vine---June.html?soid=1102880900270&aid=mhmxfLoqWMY

And be sure to sign up for On the Vine today!

On Freedom Day, we celebrate emancipation and the ongoing work of expanding freedom and opportunity.

Yesterday marked the grand opening of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food Agriculture Nutrition Innovation Center (JJK FAN) in East St. Louis — a collaboration between the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, Lansdowne UP, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Together, JJK FAN is creating opportunities for East St. Louis youth through STEM, agriculture, education, innovation, and community investment.

The center provides space and tools for the community to engage in hands-on programs and training related to food production, agriculture technology and innovation, and nutrition for improving health and performance.

As Danforth Center President Giles Oldroyd said in his remarks, “At the Danforth Center, we are committed to delivering the future scientists and future innovators of tomorrow, because we really need it. The world needs it. And those future leaders, I believe, can come from East St. Louis if we give them the opportunity."

Tess Rogers spent nearly a decade as a naturalist and educator before joining the Danforth Center's Pivot to Plants Fellows Program. Through the fellowship, she discovered a growing plant sciences industry with data tools, research culture, and the network of companies and organizations clustered around 39 North that she hadn't known existed.

"I had no idea there was an ecosystem here," she says. "I think it's one of St. Louis' best kept secrets — and it shouldn't be a secret."

Today she works in Bayer's contained-environment group, supporting research teams across greenhouse studies. Without Pivot to Plants, she says, she wouldn't be there. "I would have been too discouraged to get back into the research field. And now that I'm in it, I'm so happy to be back."

It's one of many ways St. Louis is building its bioscience pipeline — including through today's opening of the JJK FAN Innovation Center, a partnership between the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, Lansdowne UP, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that brings hands-on STEM learning to young East St. Louis students.

As Danforth Center President Giles Oldroyd puts it: "St. Louis has a fantastic offer right now. We've got a thriving ecosystem already, but I think we can grow it a lot."

Collaboration is central to how we work at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and our annual Scientific Retreat reflects that. Over two days at the Missouri Botanical Garden and back at the Center, scientists gathered to share research and exchange ideas. From poster pitches by early-career researchers to presentations by established investigators, the retreat gives everyone a chance to engage with work happening across the Center.

This year's plenary speaker, Dr. Rob Myers, Director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Professor in the Mizzou Plant Science & Technology Division, brought a perspective that connects fundamental research to real-world agricultural impact, which is a thread that runs through much of our own work.

Thank you to everyone who presented and participated.

Can a plant remember a heat wave? 🌿

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center principal investigator Ru Zhang and her team are investigating just that. By studying how photosynthetic cells retain "heat stress memory," they aim to help breed more heat-resilient crops.

Illinois Farmer Today took a closer look at how this foundational research connects to a challenge farmers are facing right now: more frequent and intense heat events that threaten crop yields and food security.

"By learning how photosynthetic cells 'respond to' and 'remember' heat at a molecular and genetic level, we can lay the foundation for future approaches to strengthen crop performance under high temperatures." — Ru Zhang