Mary-Dell Chilton dies at 87; developed first genetically modified plant

Mary-Dell Chilton died on June 24 at her home in Carrboro, North Carolina. She was 87. The cause was congestive heart failure, her son Mark Chilton said. Chilton led the research team that created the first genetically modified plant in 1982. The team developed a method for inserting foreign genes into a plant using a soil-borne microbe called Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

The work produced higher-yielding crops that resisted insects and disease and tolerated extreme weather.

Early career and discovery Chilton earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1960 and a doctorate there in 1967. She joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 1970. In 1977, she and collaborators published a paper showing that Agrobacterium could transfer its own DNA into tobacco plant cells.

In 1979, Chilton moved to Washington University in St. Louis. In 1982, her team transferred a yeast gene into a tobacco plant and showed the gene passed to the plant's descendants. The achievement was announced at a symposium in Miami in January 1983.

Later work and recognition Chilton left academia in 1983 and joined what is now Syngenta, where she worked on genetic engineering of corn and cotton. She received the World Food Prize in 2013 and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2023.

Roughly 90 percent of soybeans, cotton, corn, and sugar beets grown in the United States are now genetically modified. Chilton defended the technology, saying in a 2016 interview that plant engineering had been happening in nature for centuries. "If people understood the science, I think the concern would evaporate," she said.