Recent Brookings High School graduates Madyson Oines, Waylon Lowe, and Quinton Zhu (pictured left to right) are gaining hands-on experience at Dakota BioWorx through a 10-week prototype bioprocess training program designed to help expand South Dakota's biomanufacturing workforce.
Over the past two weeks, the graduates have been working with 3-liter fermentors to grow yeast cells that produce a pink pigment as part of SDSU Professor Ananda Nanjundaswamy's research on developing natural food dyes. In the coming weeks, they will scale up their work using 30-liter, 300-liter, and eventually 3,000-liter fermentors, providing valuable experience with biomanufacturing processes at multiple production scales.
The Brookings School District is proud to see its graduates gaining valuable, real-world experience while contributing to innovative research and helping prepare the next generation of professionals for careers in South Dakota's growing biotechnology and biomanufacturing industries. The district appreciates Dakota BioWorx for providing this outstanding opportunity and looks forward to seeing more Brookings students participate in similar experiences in the future.