Background
Chilton, Mary-Dell Matchett was born on February 2, 1939 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Daughter of William Elliot and Mary Dell (Hayes) Matchett.
Chilton, Mary-Dell Matchett was born on February 2, 1939 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Daughter of William Elliot and Mary Dell (Hayes) Matchett.
Chilton attended private school for her early education. She earned both a Bachelor of Surgery and Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry from the University of Illinois. She later completed postdoctoral work at the University of Washington at Seattle.
Chilton taught and performed research at Washington University in Saint Louis. While on faculty there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she led a collaborative research study that produced the first transgenic plants. Chilton was the first (1977) to demonstrate the presence of a fragment of Agrobacterium Ti plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid in the nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid of crown gall tissue.
Her research on Agrobacterium also showed that the genes responsible for causing disease could be removed from the bacterium without adversely affecting its ability to insert its own deoxyribonucleic acid into plant cells and modify the plant"s genome.
Chilton described what she had done as disarming the bacterial plasmid responsible for the deoxyribonucleic acid transfer. She and her collaborators produced the first genetically modified plants using Agrobacterium carrying the disarmed Ti plasmid (1983).
She has been called the "queen of Agrobacterium." Chilton is author of more than 100 scientific publications. She is a Distinguished Science Fellow at Syngenta Biotechnology, Incorporated.
She began her corporate career in 1983 with Chemical Industries Basel-Geigy Corporation (a legacy company of Syngenta).
Fellow American Academy of Sciences, American Academy Arts and Sciences American Academy Microbiology. Member National Academy of Sciences (council since 1988).
Married William Scott Chilton, July 9, 1966. Children– Andrew Scott, Mark Hayes.