About Dr. Henry Daniell
Henry Daniell was born and educated in India. He moved to the United States as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1980. Since then he has served on the faculty of Washington State University, University of Idaho Auburn University and the University of Central Florida (as Pegasus Professor & Trustee Chair). His areas on research interest include DNA replication in chloroplast and mitochondria, identification of new genes in organelle genomes, promiscuous DNA and their evolutionary significance, maternal inheritance, transgene containment, photosynthesis (Rubisco, electron transport), chlorophyll biosynthesis, chloroplast development, in organello protein synthesis, transcription, RNA processing, RNA stability, translation, protein import, proteolysis and regulation of these processes.
He pioneered the chloroplast genetic engineering approach in the 1980s and advanced this concept to confer useful agronomic traits (for herbicide, insect, disease resistance, drought & salt tolerance, photoremediation, cytoplasmic male sterility, etc.) and to express biomaterials (e.g. biopolymers) in transgenic plants. He has extended this technology to major crops, including cotton. Most important are his contributions to human medicine, for which he has engineered transgenic plants that produce pharmaceuticals to treat diabetes and hepatitis, as well as vaccines for anthrax, plague, cholera, and other bioterrorism agents. He is currently developing an additional arm to his technology that will enable therapeutic proteins to be administered orally, being able to deliver an effective inoculation to widespread communities.
Dr. Daniell has published over 150 research articles which are cited in the scientific literature over 1500 times. During the last five years, he has published over 40 articles from UCF, with a dozen in the top few journals in the field (Nature Biotechnology, Plant Physiology, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, and Trends in Plant Science). Nature Biotechnology, the premier biotechnology journal, featured articles of Dr. Daniell’s research in 1998, 2001 and 2002. Plant Physiology featured Daniell’s article on cytoplasmic male sterility on the cover in July 2005. His research has been featured in the national and international press (e.g. New York Times and Scientific American), highlighted by top scientific journals (e.g. Science and Nature), and featured by several major television networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN).
Dr. Daniell has given invited talks in six continents including Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America to educate the public on genetically modified crops. He delivered the prestigious Bob Buchanan Award lecture at University of California, Berkeley and the Royal Society of Medicine, London in 2002. He also gave an invited lecture at the Pasteur Institute, Paris (the first seminar from a plant biologist). His talk at Yale University is featured on their web site (see below for link).
Dr. Daniell’s chloroplast genetic engineering technology is protected by more than ninety U.S. and international patents. To commercialize the chloroplast technology, he founded the first Biotech company at UCF: Chlorogen, Inc. has attracted millions of dollars in investment capital from several major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Chlorogen received the Frost & Sullivan award for the best biotech company for designing a creative solution to a pressing problem.
Dr. Daniell has secured more than 10 million dollars in extramural research funds and currently receives grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). His high level of funding has earned him the title of UCF Millionaires Club Honoree for the past two years.
Dr. Daniell was selected as the first UCF Trustee Chair in the life sciences the first Pegasus Professor in the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences. While on the faculty of Auburn University he received the Alumni Association and Sigma Xi Award for distinguished research career among Auburn faculty (one award among all faculty members).
Dr. Daniell is the Senior Editor of the Plant Biotechnology Journal (UK) and Biotechnology Journal (Germany). He has received several Distinguished Researcher and Teaching Excellence Awards. Dr. Daniell has served as a consultant to the United Nations in biotechnology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Italy in 2004, a rare honor bestowed on 14 Americans in the past 222 years. Past members from the U.S. include Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
