Dilip Shah's Biography

Dilip Shah, Principal Investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Dr. Dilip M. Shah has been a Principal Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Saint Louis, USA since 2001. The research in his lab is focused on studying the interactions of fungal pathogens with their host plants and developing strategies for the generation of disease resistant transgenic crops. His lab is investigating the structure-activity relationships and modes of action of a group of plant defense proteins known as defensins which exhibit potent antifungal activity against several filamentous fungi. Genes encoding these proteins have a great potential to be used as antifungal agents in transgenic crops. Dr. Shah has over 30 years of experience in plant molecular biology and agricultural biotechnology. During his previous tenure at Monsanto Company, he made substantial contributions to the development of herbicide- resistant crops and led a team of scientists working on fungal disease resistant crops. He played a major role in the establishment of Monsanto Company’s Research and Development Center in Bengaluru, India. Dr. Shah has served on the study section of the National Institutes of Health and has served on the review panel at the National Science Foundation. He has published more than 65 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a co-inventor on a number of patents. His patents on glyphosate-tolerant crops were listed as “Ten Patents That Changed the World” in 2003 year-end publication of Intellectual Property Worldwide.