St. Louis Wins i6 Challenge Competition

ST. LOUIS, MO, September 26, 2010

St. Louis was one of only six grants for technological innovation awarded yesterday by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, announced the Danforth Plant Science Center. The $1 million i6 Challenge grant was part of a highly competitive process. St. Louis is the only award that includes a plant science component. All other awards were for biomedical activities.

The St. Louis collaborative will use funds from this award to support early stage life science technologies developed by the region's research institutions and entrepreneurs. This type of early-stage funding is crucial for advancing promising companies to the next stage of capital investment and lead to new businesses and job creation in the region.

"This award speaks well to the region's ability to come together and leverage our individual strengths. Working with the great resources of the BioGenerator, we will be better able to mine our wealth of plant-based technology for prospects for start-up companies, said Sam Fiorello, COO of the Danforth Plant Science Center. Fiorello added, I also believe that the Danforth Center and BRDG Park's leading position in the plant-tech space helped add a dimension of uniqueness to our application.

The i6 Challenge seeks to identify and support the nation's best ideas for technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in six different regions in the country. The competition was led by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA), in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"I applaud the winners of the i6 Challenge on their tremendous achievement," Locke said. Each of the winners exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that drives innovation and will help move America forward by increasing our competitiveness around the world. The i6 Challenge represents a key component of President Obama's innovation strategy -- to move great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to create jobs and economic growth."

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center was part of a regional collaboration led by the BioGenerator and includes, St. Louis County Economic Council, St. Louis City Development Corporation, Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Washington University and Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences, that submitted the application and won in a highly competitive field.

This co-op of esteemed organizations will advance bioscience technology commercialization through collaborative targeted pre-company translational research, company creation, and first funding, and build an entrepreneurial infrastructure that is market-based around the needs of existing bioscience firms and investors.

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research at the Danforth Center will feed the hungry and improve human health, preserve and renew the environment, and enhance the St. Louis region and Missouri as a world center for plant science. The Center's work is funded through competitive grants and contract revenue from many sources, including the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center invites you to visit its new website, http://www.danforthcenter.org; featuring interactive information on the Center's research, scientists, news and public education outreach. RSS feeds and the brand new "Roots & Shoots" blog allow visitors to keep up to date with Center's current operations and areas of research.