As the founder of Syngenta Biotechnology, Mary-Dell Chilton has spent her career trying to help improve crop yields and prevent losses for farmers around the world.
Next month in recognition of her life work, she receives the Presidential Award from the Crop Science Society of America. It is the latest in a list of honors that includes the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award for Life Sciences from the Franklin Institute. That one put her in company with Einstein and Edison.
Chilton started her career in academia, and it was as a faculty member at Washington University that she and other researchers produced the first ever "transgenic" plant. Theirs was a landmark discovery in plant genetics, as it demonstrated that beneficial genes could be introduced into plants to make new genetic lines with desirable traits. It also helped lead her to a business career in biotechnology, with CIBA-Geigy, a predecessor of Syngenta Biotechnology in Research Triangle Park.
The technologies developed from Chilton and Syngenta's research include drought-tolerant and disease-resistant genetically modified seeds; various herbicides, insecticides and fungicides; and numerous other products that allow farmers to boost yields and manage complex issues.
Now 72, Chilton is still experimenting, exploring and evolving. Far from retiring, she continues to pursue cutting-edge research, working out of her RTP lab daily. She recently talked with correspondent Sam Harris about her work.
Q: What led you to move away from academia and into industry?
A: When CIBA-Geigy executives proposed the opportunity to direct a brand-new agricultural biotechnology research program, hire a lot of scientists, put up a new laboratory facility in RTP and move to North Carolina, it looked pretty tempting, quite challenging, and very interesting. And now, looking back over 28 years, three company name changes, mergers and spinoffs, many changes in the name of my position, and a return to the lab bench, I am glad I took that terrifying leap.
Q: What lessons, skills and knowledge can an experienced scientist bring to the business table? What can an accomplished business leader offer that a pure lab scientist may not have?
A: The business people provide the framework: where we need to go. The scientist has to devise one or more ways to get there. Syngenta is in the hybrid corn seed business, so we start from the customer's (the grower's) need. He wants more bushels of corn per acre and lower cost of production. His problems include the weather, bugs and the viruses they transmit, as well as the fungal pathogens the bugs may track in. From discussions between the businessman, the plant breeder and one or several types of scientific specialists, a vision of a product begins to emerge. Communication, clarity and openness among businessmen and their scientific experts are essential to the process of choosing projects that will succeed.
Q: What research are you currently focused on, and how could this lead to new breakthroughs in biotech in the near future?
A: I work on the technology side of our business; specifically, on getting genes of interest into the plant chromosome in a good place. The challenges we are addressing are the "stacking" of traits - i.e., keeping all of the genes in one place - and the "targeting" of genes - i.e., getting the genes to insert at a particular place. These stacking and targeting technologies could allow breeders to follow multiple genes as if they were one big gene, and to place genes on a particular chromosome where they perform well.
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