A photo of Dr. Nadia Shakoor in the Danforth Center's greenhouses with text overlaid reading: Congratulations, Nadia Shakoor! Nadia Shakoor, PhD, has been selected to receive the Innovation Award from the Academy of Science-St. Louis.

Nadia Shakoor, PhD, has been selected to receive the inaugural Innovation Award from the Academy of Science – St. Louis! Nadia is a principal investigator at the Danforth Center and the Chief Science Officer of Agrela Ecosystems, a St. Louis–based technology company. Congratulations, Nadia! 🎉

Global Sorghum "Pangenome" Published in Nature Accelerates Discovery of Resilient Crop Traits - Danforth Plant Science Center Danforth Center scientists publish a sorghum pangenome in Nature, revealing hidden genetic diversity to accelerate breeding of drought- and heat-resilient crops.

Danforth Center scientists are co-authors on a landmark study published today in @nature.com: the 1st comprehensive sorghum pangenome. Breeding better sorghum has been limited by an incomplete picture of its genetic diversity—until now.
www.danforthcenter.org/news/global-sorghum-pang...

901 curious minds showed up for PlantTech Jam 2026 to connect with Danforth Center scientists. Thanks to you, we had a blast! See the highlights and photos from the day: https://www.danforthcenter.org/news/planttechjam/

I don't know how the US will recover from the effect this will have on an entire generation of early career researchers. Devastating.

(HEC Media) Cultivating a Better Collard Green - Danforth Plant Science Center Antonio Brazelton, a scientist at Danforth Center, is working to improve a crop with a rich cultural history: collard greens.

Danforth Center Scientist Antonio Brazelton's research on heirloom collard greens at JJK FAN is blending community, culture, & science in powerful ways. 🥬

Watch to see how: www.danforthcenter.org/news/hec-media-cultivati...

#plantscience #collardgreens #urbanfarming

Preprint!!!! This is the result of an ongoing collaboration between us and the genomics core to make genetics cheap and easy. A synergy between library prep and analytical approaches. This one hinges on recognizing 1. that DNA molecules are shaped by evolution and 2. we have friends everywhere.

The Bart Lab at UC Berkeley is looking for a postdoc. Please share!

🌱 Now published in Bioinformatics Advances: "Challenges and opportunities: Computational biology and the future of agriculture" 

Explore the full study: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbag003

Authors include: @noahfahlgren.bsky.social

Danforth Center Principal Investigator Honored for Her Contributions to the Advancement of Science - Danforth Plant Science Center Danforth Center Principal Investigator Katie Murphy, PhD, receives the Science Educator Award from the Academy of Science – St. Louis for excellence in science education.

🎉 Congratulations to @kmurphyphd.bsky.social, Principal Investigator and Director of the Phenotyping Core Facility at the Danforth Center—she has been selected to receive the Science Educator Award from the Academy of Science – St. Louis!

Read more: www.danforthcenter.org/news/danfort...

International Collaboration Aims to Improve Key Crops for Rwandan Farmers - Danforth Plant Science Center The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is part of a newinternational initiative to establish a Centre of Excellence for Crop Biotechnology at the RwandaAgriculture and Animal Resources Development B...

In an international effort funded by the Gates Foundation, Nigel Taylor, PhD, & the Danforth Center are partnering on the new Rwanda Capacity Building (BioCap) Project, led by @cipotato.org, to establish a Rwandan Centre of Excellence for Crop Biotechnology & advance food security. loom.ly/4KW17iM

Check it out! We use an open-source python package to analyze drone images to estimate plot height. Look out for more info on PlantCV-Geospatial in the coming year 😎

Quantifying growth and lodging in Tef (Eragrostis tef) with Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) Lodging is a major contributor to decreased yield in tef, a staple cereal crop in Ethiopia. Semidwarf varieties have been developed with a goal to increase yield through reduced lodging, but studying ...

Quantifying growth and lodging in Tef (Eragrostis tef) with UAS. New preprint with @keelybrownphd.bsky.social @kmurphyphd.bsky.social and others, using geospatial analysis in @plantcv.bsky.social to estimate plot height and lodging with RGB and LiDAR sensors www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

PlantCV v4: Image analysis software for high-throughput plant phenotyping PlantCV is an open-source Python project aimed at developing tools to address a range of image-based, plant phenotyping questions. PlantCV has been used for more than 10 years to automate trait collec...

New preprint from the PlantCV team! This paper on PlantCV v4 presents the work of the 62 contributors to the project since v2: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #plantphenotyping #computervision #machinelearning

Nominations are now open for awards to be presented at the 2026 North American Plant Phenotyping Network Annual Conference. This is a great opportunity to recognize our outstanding colleague’s contributions to plant phenotyping research and innovation. mailchi.mp/ce99f293f3f6...

Reminder: tomorrow (Oct. 31) is the deadline for submitting an abstract to be considered for a talk and PlantCV travel award applications for the 2026 NAPPN conference: www.plantphenotyping.org/abstracts

New @genomejournal.bsky.social special collection “Early Leads: Plant Biology Side Projects with Big Potential”. We’re looking for short, self-contained studies with big impact. Deadline July 31st, 2026. OA, no pub. fees, ECRs!
Questions? Reach out to us (Olivia and @zoejolylopez.bsky.social)

The @plantcv.bsky.social team is hosting a workshop at the @nappn.bsky.social 2026 conference in Feb. at Michigan State and is able to support the travel of up to 20 participants. Please apply for the workshop and submit an abstract to the conference if you are interested: mailchi.mp/3afecdddf6de...

It is eternally irritating to go from software tool to tool trying to find one that has reasonable instructions for running locally or a functional webserver.

Truly frustrating to see how many tools are basically unusable even a few months after publication. 🧪💻

P2P provides training and career development for folks looking to transition to plant biology. I'm currently mentoring one of this year's Fellows, so feel free to reach out if you have questions about this incredible program!

Some of the necessary equipment to build a Raspberry Pi powered imaging and temperature sensor system for research.

Raspberry Pi–powered temperature monitoring of growth chamber microclimates

New in #AppsPlantSci by Ballenger, @kmurphyphd.bsky.social, @maliagehan.bsky.social et al

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @plantcv.bsky.social @danforthcenter.bsky.social #RaspberryPi #phenotyping #botany

Raspberry Pi–powered temperature monitoring of growth chamber microclimates Premise While controlled environments are desirable for growing and measuring plants, growth chambers and greenhouses typically have microclimates that impact plant growth, development, and stress r.....

New paper - build a Raspberry Pi phenotyping chamber for imaging and temperature sensing! Thanks to Malia Gehan and her team for leading this work. bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Pivot to Plants: Training Program for Plant and Data Science | Danforth Plant Science Center The Pivot2Plants Fellows Program is a 1-year training program for people interested in pivoting to a career in plant science or data science but have limited research experience.

Applications open now for our Pivot 2 Plants program! Please share widely, 1 year paid opportunity to transition to careers in plant and data science. www.danforthcenter.org/our-work/edu...

Pivot to Plants: Training Program for Plant and Data Science | Danforth Plant Science Center The Pivot2Plants Fellows Program is a 1-year training program for people interested in pivoting to a career in plant science or data science but have limited research experience.

Deadline for our 2nd cohort of the Pivot to Plants program at the Danforth Center is Oct 15th. Excited to identify 5 participants for a 1-year NSF-funded internship. Hands-on research experience in cutting-edge #plantscience, #imaging, #datascience, and more! www.danforthcenter.org/our-work/edu...

It has been incredibly rewarding to see our first cohort excel in this NSF ExLENT funded workforce development program. Through the program we are able to provide hands-on research experience and training in emerging technologies in imaging and data science for plant science from cells to the field

Building on our previous work in cassava, I'm excited to share our pre-print "Evidence that variation in DNA polymerase delta subunit 1 underlies geminivirus resistance in diverse plants"
www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
@bartlabddpsc.bsky.social @danforthcenter.bsky.social

Excessive leaf oil modulates the plant abiotic stress response via reduced stomatal aperture in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Understanding the response of future crops to adverse conditions, including high temperatures, is crucial. We describe the impact of high temperature stress on a high lipid producing biofuel tobacco ...

New paper alert! We found huge oil droplets in the guard cells of a high oil tobacco variety. The stomata of these tobacco plants have a smaller aperture, which increases leaf temperature and decreases transpiration. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Bringing expansion microscopy to plants Biologist Kevin Cox, in Arts & Sciences, has discovered a low-cost way to more easily study the detailed makeup of plant cells. The ultimate goal is to help grow better crops, improving food security.

Big paper out from @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social! source.washu.edu/2025/03/brin...

a cartoon drawing of a potted plant with a smiling face ALT: a cartoon drawing of a potted plant with a smiling face

~290 participants at our Annual @nappn.bsky.social meeting this year! This is a virtual conference with in-person activities at several 'hub' sites @danforthcenter.bsky.social, MSU, Winnepeg/Manitoba, NCSU, UMN, and Corteva. #CelebrateScience @noahfahlgren.bsky.social @kmurphyphd.bsky.social

Meet the Danforth Center’s next President! We’re thrilled to welcome world-renowned plant geneticist @gilesoldroyd.bsky.social to the Danforth Center this October.

Internationally recognized plant scientist named next President of the Danforth Plant Science Center - Danforth Plant Science Center After an extensive international search, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has named Giles Oldroyd, PhD, as its next President.

After an extensive search, the Danforth Center has named Giles Oldroyd, PhD, its next President.

@gilesoldroyd.bsky.social is a renowned plant geneticist & one of only a few hundred scientists elected to both the UK @royalsociety.org & the US @nasonline.org.
www.danforthcenter.org/news/interna...