Danforth Center Awards Proof-of-Concept Funding to Four Scientific Teams Advancing Agricultural Innovation

Newswise — ST. LOUIS, MO., August 18, 2025 – As part of its Startup Initiative, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has awarded proof-of-concept (PoC) funding to four scientific teams developing breakthrough technologies aimed at solving global challenges in food security and environmental sustainability.

Established to accelerate the movement of scientific discovery from the lab into the marketplace, the Startup Initiative provides critical early support for promising technologies. A key component of this effort, the PoC fund awards $50,000 grants to internal research teams working on pre-commercial innovations with identified commercial potential.

PoC funds support projects that:

• Generate additional data to secure intellectual property (IP) and strengthen the Center’s IP portfolio;
• Enhance the attractiveness of technologies for research collaboration and licensing opportunities; and
• Advance technologies toward the establishment of new startup companies.

“The PoC fund has proven highly effective at developing marketable technologies,” said Danforth Center President and CEO Jim Carrington, PhD. “Over the past four years, several technologies have been derisked through PoC awards, resulting in three new startup companies.” 

The four newly funded projects include:

Developing Genetic Resistance to Geminivirus Pathogens Plant geminiviruses cause numerous devastating diseases in crops such as cassava, tomato, maize, soybean and cotton. The Taylor Laboratory has identified mutations in DNA polymerase delta subunit 1 (POLD1) that confer geminivirus resistance. This discovery offers an important target for biotechnology to generate genetic resistance to geminiviruses across multiple crops, offering farmers an economical and sustainable solution to protect yields.

Platform for Rapid Discovery of Custom Weed Control Strategies Herbicides are widely used and important for weed control in agriculture but are over-used and suffer from limitations on how they can be applied. The Umen Laboratory is developing an efficient customized screening platform to identify the genetic bases for herbicide sensitivity in any crop species. This technology will enable rapid development of strategies to help farmers efficiently combat weeds while reducing overall herbicide usage.

Exploiting Plasmodesmata to Control Plant Disease Plasmodesmata, pores that cross the cell wall to allow the movement of important biomolecules between cells, can be readily exploited by many pathogens. The Burch-Smith and Czymmek teams are pioneering new methods to manipulate plasmodesmata functions to develop novel pesticides and improved crop varieties with entirely new modes of action.

Improving Maize for No-Till Cover Cropping Management Systems  While no-till cover cropping has been demonstrated to be better for the soil, they have also been associated with yield drag in early years, which disincentivizes their adoption by producers. The Baxter and Topp laboratories have developed an approach to phenotype novel maize germplasm for improved performance in a no-till cover crop system. This will enable the identification of alleles and develop germplasm that allow cash crops to be grown in cover crop fields without sacrificing productivity.

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a nonprofit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research, education and outreach aim to have an impact at the nexus of food security and the environment and position the St. Louis region as a world center for plant science. The Center’s work is funded through competitive grants from many sources, including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, the Gates Foundation, and through the support of individuals and corporations. 

For additional information or images please contact:  Karla Roeber, [email protected] .