Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit scientific facility located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Its main mission point is to "improve the human condition through plant science". Founded in 1998 by William Henry Danforth, M.D., a cardiologist and the brother of former U.S. Senator and Episcopal priest John Danforth, the Center is the product of an alliance joining the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, Monsanto Company, Purdue University, and Washington University in St. Louis. Established in 1998, the Danforth Center building opened in October 2001 and houses equipment for protein crystallography, proteomics and mass spectrometry, microscopy and imaging of live cells, cell and tissue culture, and for control and maintenance of plants. Dr. Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D. was named the founding president of the Center in January 1999.