Danforth Center announces new assistant member

ST. LOUIS, MO., August 6, 2024 – The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced today that Nadia Shakoor, PhD, has joined as Assistant Member. She is an expert in sorghum genetics, a versatile and drought-resistant cereal grain vital for food, feed and fuel in many arid and semi-arid regions of the world. She is also the co-founder and CEO of Agrela Ecosystems, a local startup technology company focused on providing flexible eco-tech solutions. Agrela Ecosystems introduced its flagship product, PheNode—a scalable and customizable environmental sensor platform that supports data-driven agriculture and improves remote sensing solutions across multiple industries—with $250,000 in revenue from sales of hardware and related services.  

“The Danforth Center is extremely fortunate to have Nadia and her team as part of the community,”  said Malia Gehan, PhD, associate member at the Danforth Center who led the hiring search process.  “Her group has deep expertise in sorghum and develops innovative technologies to better measure the environment and plant traits. Nadia’s work will benefit the Center, St. Louis, and far beyond.” 

Shakoor is part of a nationwide collaboration to quantify the climate impact potential of sorghum through a five-year, $65 million project led by the National Sorghum producers. 

She also collaborates with Salk Institute scientists to identify and develop sorghum plants that can better capture and store atmospheric carbon. Shakoor and colleagues are advancing agriculture-based carbon capture technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Shakoor is an expert in crop genetics and plant phenotyping. She has served as Project Director of multiple multi-institutional and international projects, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Sorghum Genomics Toolbox (SGT) project, an initiative that developed genomic and phenotyping tools for improved sorghum breeding. As Project Director of the TERRA-REF program, she helped deploy the largest field analytics robot in the world to do high-throughput phenotyping of sorghum used for bioenergy applications.  

Shakoor continued this work through a collaborative partnership that developed the FieldDock, an integrated smart farm system technology to collect and analyze real time data from the field, allowing for effective tracking of crop performance. 

In addition, Shakoor has launched innovative research on fonio, a critical and under-researched food security crop in West Africa. Employing CRISPR technology, the project team is engineering traits that are expected to boost yields and simplify fonio cultivation.

“Our work with technologies like PheNode and FieldDock is central to enhancing the sustainability of vital crops like sorghum and fonio,” said Shakoor. “These tools offer precise data that guide researchers and breeders in developing high-yielding, energy-efficient crops resilient to variable climates. This information also aims to help farmers make informed management decisions that optimize water and energy use without compromising yield.” 

“We’re thrilled to have Nadia join us in her new role,” said President and CEO, Jim Carrington, PhD. “Her work impacts food security, sustainability in agriculture and climate change, three things that we care about deeply at the Danforth Center.”

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 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and through the support of individuals and corporations. 

For additional information or images please contact:  Karla Roeber, kroeber@danforthcenter.org