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As a fifth grader, Julia Steffl commandeered the family kitchen for a science project to research how yeast works.

Today, her research is in the Dakota BioWorx facility east of the South Dakota State University campus, where she works as a Pioneer BioTech student employee. There, she applies the centuries-old practice of fermentation by using high-tech equipment in a Dakota BioWorx lab to hopefully produce a product that will make life better for her family’s Minnesota farm and improve the lot for all farmers by creating another ag-based product.

Steffl is a junior agricultural and biosystems engineering major from Callaway, Minnesota, about an hour east of Fargo, North Dakota.

Her father and brother produce wheat, corn and soybeans. Like the vast majority of producers, they apply fungicides to combat white mold and sudden death syndrome on soybeans. Synthetic surfactants are added to the fungicides to decrease the surface tension with the leaf and thus increase fungicide coverage on the leaf.

While those chemicals are affective, they also raise health and environmental concerns,  Steffl said.

Welcome to Dakota BioWorx

That’s where her research at Dakota BioWorx, which opened in 2023 as an incubator for bioprocessing startups and growing biotech companies, comes in. Matthew Cole founded Pioneer BioTech in 2021 while a Ph.D. student under professor Zhengrong “Jimmy” Gu. Initially housed in the Research Park at SDSU’s Brookings Innovation Center, Pioneer BioTech moved into the Dakota BioWorx space in the neighboring POET Bioproducts Center shortly after opening.

Pioneer BioTech’s focus is on using fermentation of agricultural goods to create value-added bioproducts.

Steffl didn’t know the company background when she reached out to Dr. Cole in February 2025. A scheduling quirk created a need to pick up another credit hour in her major. After discussion between her adviser and professors, Steffl was able to contract a credit of independent study with Cole. “Research was something I had never tried before but figured I would just do it and see what happened,” Steffl said.

She started an internship with Pioneer BioTech in May 2025, and it was like adding yeast to a bread recipe—it caused her interests and skills to grow exponentially.

She fell in love with using “simple ag products (soybean meal) and bioprocessing (fermentation) to make a surfactant that is easily useable and bio friendly.” The surfactant enhances the spreading quality of a fungicide or herbicide, keeps the leaf moistened for a longer period of time and increases leaf penetration.

Ag industry funds research

After interning with both Pioneer BioTech and Dakota BioWorx in summer 2025, Steffl started on her independent study project in August 2025.

Formally known as “Development of a Biosurfactant for Effective Treatment of Soybean Aphids,” the project is financed by a grant from the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council with additional sponsorship from the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.

Proprietary genetically engineered E. coli bacteria is added to common soybean meal in a bioreactor in which oxygen and glucose are added to produce a foam that can be purified, used as a biosurfactant, and mixed with herbicides and pesticides.

If at first you don’t succeed …

Sounds simple enough, but Steffl has found the work to be much more challenging than the sourdough bread she has been making since June 2024. 

“Getting the product to grow in the bioreactor is challenging and keeping it sterile is difficult. Everything must be measured exactly. One little error can ruin a whole week’s worth of work. The bioreactors are very powerful machines but also very temperamental. The ports on top of bioreactor must be sealed to prevent any contamination from entering,” Steffl said.

She did her first test run Dec. 2, 2025, with an expected test run of 68 hours. But at 10 hours foam was bubbling out of the bioreactor. The air flow rate was too high. 

The process was adjusted for a second run Dec. 9-11, and the results were much more favorable. While that effort and her subsequent report met the criteria for her independent study class, the research is far from complete. Initial tests were done in Dakota BioWorx’s 7.5-liter bioreactor. More such lab scale runs will be done this semester.

End goal remains years in the future

If those prove successful, the runs can move up the Dakota BioWorx ladder to larger and larger fermentation tanks.

There is a small plot of land behind Dakota BioWorx where Pioneer BioTech plants a plot of soybeans, corn and sunflowers and then test the effectiveness of their biosurfactant in a spray. Optimally, they also would be able to test the spray on some fields in Minnesota this summer.

Best-case scenario, the product is at least two years away from commercialization. Environmental Protection Agency approval would be needed once Pioneer BioTech has a minimally viable product ready, Cole said.

Pioneer BioTech also has several other projects underway researching treatments for bacterial plant diseases, including Goss’s Wilt in corn, and the insect Red Sunflower Seed Weevils that are severely impacting South Dakota. These projects interplay with each other and have larger implications for crop protection and nutrition, Cole said. 

Right now, he is assisted by Steffl, another ag engineering undergrad, Brock Hansen; and a biology undergrad, Peyton Plagman, who just joined the team.

In addition, Dakota BioWorx, which is funded by a mix of public and ag industry funds, has a staff that can assist with operations.

(Note: On Dec. 29, 2025, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden announced a $900,000 grant from the state’s Future Fund to help cash-flow operating costs and bioprocessing workforce development as Dakota BioWorx seeks to attract more users for its 15 laboratories and pilot plant.)

Opportunities await Steffl after graduation

As for Steffl’s future, the short answer is TBD. She doesn’t graduate until May 2027 and already has opportunities with several Midwest bioprocessing manufacturers. She also may decide to continue research efforts with Cole.

She said working at Dakota BioWorx for her independent study “didn’t seem like work. It seemed like me being in a prolonged microbiology lab. … It created a greater awareness of my interests and a greater understanding of the problems that farmers in this area have. I hope to help the farmers and create new markets for their product.

“Coming to college has helped me develop my interests. The expertise of the people here who are willing to share has piqued my interest.”