Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
January 20, 2026
Tim Kelliher, head of NC State University's Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture, works in a greenhouse in the Plant Sciences Building on campus.
Tim Kelliher, leader of NC State University’s Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture, finds his motivation — his “why”— in doing research that meets the real-world needs of farmers.
Before taking on the challenge of starting a new research enterprise at NC State, Kelliher spent 12 years developing new breeding technologies to accelerate the development of new crop varieties as the head of Crop Trait and Technology Discovery for the Seeds division of Syngenta Biotechnology, based in Research Triangle Park.
“I’ve joined NC State because I think this technology can really make a difference in the lives of farmers,” says Kelliher, who began work at the university in July 2025. ”I think that gene editing technology can help farmers be more profitable and solve some of their biggest challenges, including how to deal with evolving challenges of diseases, pests and extreme weather.”
Productive Detour
Kelliher took a roundabout route through farm fields in Pennsylvania and New York to find his career path. Back in the early 2000s, he had no inkling that he’d pursue a career in agricultural biotechnology.
As a freshman who “wasn’t inspired” by his coursework, he decided to take time off from Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia. The college connected him with a farmer in central Pennsylvania. Kelliher was so eager to get his hands dirty that he offered to pitch a tent and work for free in exchange for meals and a hands-on education.
“Working 12 hours per day throughout the growing season gave me an appreciation for the challenges farmers face and inspired my love of plant development and genetics,” Kelliher explains. “That experience has driven my focus to try to bring solutions forward for farmers.”
He also worked at an apple orchard and dairy farm in New York, pruning, grafting, spraying, milking and getting the dirt-under-his-fingernails experience he sought. “It was one of the best times of my life,” he says now.
Tim Kelliher, head of the Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture at NC State University, checks in with Abigail Jarrell, a temporary research technician with the center.
Organic Inspiration
Many of the people Kelliher worked with on organic farms were surprisingly open-minded about agricultural biotechnology.
The manager of one farm told Kelliher he thought genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were “great” because crops with built-in pest resistance allowed growers to spray less, reducing the environmental impact.
That conversation helped Kelliher reframe his view of genetic manipulation and inspired him to return to college and study plant genetics and development. He focused on plant genetic engineering to try to maximize the impact of science on agricultural productivity and farming system sustainability, completing a Ph.D. in genetics from Stanford University, where he did in-depth research on corn reproduction.
After working on farms, Kelliher also developed a deep appreciation for rural families and their contributions.
“When we talk about American values — working hard, helping your neighbors, taking care of the land — to me, those values are everywhere in our country, but they developed from our rural communities because those values are what make a farm run well, are what hold our communities together,” he says. “Those are the kinds of things that make America special. Those are the values I grew up with, and they inspire my passion for agriculture and for my work.”
Kedong Da, left, director of the Plant Transformation Lab, consults with Tim Kelliher, head of NC State’s Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
A Strong Start
Six months after onboarding at NC State, Kelliher has assembled a research team for the Genome Editing Center and signed two sponsored research agreements with companies to work on editing traits in their crops of interest.
Lei Ding, a full-time molecular biologist with more than 20 years of experience, recently joined the Genome Editing Center. Kelliher is in the process of hiring an experienced transformation scientist with more than 15 years of experience.
Two technicians are on board to work on gene editing in four different crops. A Ph.D. student in wheat genome editing started work in early January, and a postdoctoral researcher will begin work in February in the same area. In July, a Ph.D. student working on sweetpotato research will join the team.
The new scientists, technicians and students will collaborate with NC State colleagues, many of whom are affiliated with the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. The researchers have access to cutting-edge labs, greenhouses and collaborative space in NC State’s Plant Sciences Building.
The growth of the Genome Editing Center team is the kind of progress that Kelliher likes to see because it means results are one step closer to reaching farmers.
“I’m excited and enthusiastic about developing genome-edited versions of crops that we can test in fields across North Carolina,” he says.
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