Microbes discovered in an underground lab engineered to convert corn into cancer-fighting drug

More than a mile beneath the surface of the Black Hills of South Dakota, in conditions of intense pressure, complete darkness, and near-total isolation from the outside world, microorganisms have survived for millennia by developing biochemical capabilities found nowhere else on Earth.

Now, a South Dakota research team is turning those survival strategies into a platform for precision cancer therapy.

Dr. Rajesh Sani, distinguished professor in the Karen M. Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Chemistry, Biology & Health Sciences at South Dakota Mines and director of the MASON Laboratory, has received a biomedical research award to develop biodegradable drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. The grant is administered through the Haarberg 3D Center at South Dakota State University, a Governor’s Research Center funded by the South Dakota Board of Regents.

The source material for the research: extremophilic microbes collected from the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, S.D., the largest and one of the deepest, most scientifically significant research environments in the world.

"These organisms have spent millions of years solving problems that we're only beginning to understand," said Dr. Sani. "What they've developed to survive extreme conditions, the polymers, the enzymes, the bioactive compounds, turns out to have remarkable potential in therapeutic applications."

Delivering drugs where they're needed most

At the center of the project is the development of so-called "smart" drug carriers: tiny, biodegradable particles engineered to carry chemotherapy or other cancer medications directly to a tumor site, releasing their payload in response to the specific chemical conditions found within tumors. The goal is to dramatically reduce the systemic side effects that make many cancer treatments debilitating.

"If we can deliver drugs more precisely, we can improve outcomes and quality of life at the same time," Dr. Sani said. "Our goal is to help cancer treatments work where they're needed most while reducing the burden on patients."

The research draws on biopolymers and compounds originally developed by Dr. Sani's group for entirely different applications, clean energy systems and space exploration environments, that are now being adapted for biomedical use for the first time.

"This award represents a significant milestone in my research program, marking the first time my group's extremophile-based biopolymer platforms are being translated into biomedical and cancer-focused applications," Dr. Sani said.

SURF: A scientific resource below the surface

As America’s Underground Lab, and one of 16 similar labs around the world, SURF is home to world-class physics experiments, including groundbreaking dark matter detection and neutrino research. The facility’s deep subsurface environment, including 370 miles of tunnels and shafts, also serves as a reservoir of biological diversity that remains largely unexplored. Dr. Sani was among the first biologists to conduct sampling at SURF and has been carrying out research underground there for nearly two decades. Under those extreme conditions (high pressure, scarce nutrients, and near-zero oxygen levels) only the most biochemically resourceful organisms survive. The result is microbial life with molecular capabilities that simply do not exist in surface environments.

“As a dedicated scientific facility, SURF is proud to serve the entire underground science community, with incredible potential to impact a range of research disciplines. The tremendous breadth and environmental diversity at SURF is especially relevant for those in the life sciences community, and we are thrilled to have played a role in these impressive advances made by Dr. Sani and his state-wide collaborators,” said Dr. Jaret Heise, science director at SURF. 

Dr. Sani's team at South Dakota Mines has isolated and characterized more than 500 extremophilic microorganisms using advanced multi-omics approaches, including next-generation sequencing genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. This work is helping develop a fundamental understanding of how these organisms function in extreme environments and how their unique biomolecules can be harnessed for bioprocessing, biomaterials, and biomedical applications. 

This entire effort can be further enhanced with research funding legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress. The bipartisan Homestake AI Act invests in genome sequencing to tap the wealth of biological life living underground at SURF. This research can lead to breakthroughs in new medicines and potential disease cures.

Scaling the science at Dakota BioWorx

Translating laboratory discoveries into materials that can be tested, refined, and eventually manufactured at scale requires infrastructure that most academic labs cannot provide alone. That's where Dakota BioWorx comes in.

Based at the SDSU Research Park in Brookings, SD, Dakota Bioworx is a bioprocess contract development and manufacturing organization built specifically to bridge the gap between early-stage research and real-world production. Dr. Sani's team, including Co-PI and research scientist Dipayan Samanta, Ph.D., graduate student Anjali Thapliyal, and undergraduate researchers Nathaniel Strickland, Samantha Harris, Kaleb Borges, and Kara Fletcher, is conducting pilot-scale fermentation and biomass harvesting at the Dakota BioWorx facility.

"South Dakota Mines is doing important work at the leading edge of biomedical research," said Craig Arnold, CEO of Dakota BioWorx. "Dakota BioWorx exists to provide the infrastructure that helps that kind of innovation scale, giving researchers the ability to test, refine, and advance their work in a real-world bioprocessing environment."

The work is being developed from the outset with future clinical use in mind, following production and documentation standards designed to support eventual regulatory review and industry partnership.

A South Dakota Story

The collaboration connecting SURF's subsurface environment, South Dakota Mines' research capabilities, and Dakota BioWorx's bioprocessing infrastructure represents something unusual in the life sciences: a fully in-state pipeline from discovery to development, anchored by a diverse set of stakeholders across state government and universities, committed to keeping that work here.

Support for the broader research program also includes applications associated with corn grind supplied by South Dakota State University, which serves as the primary feedstock for cultivating the extremophilic microbes at the heart of Dr. Sani's platform.

"Dakota BioWorx was built to be the infrastructure layer that South Dakota's biotech ecosystem needed," Arnold said. "We're not just supporting local research — we're working with biotech innovators from across the United States and internationally who are choosing South Dakota as their development and manufacturing partner. That's how you build a bioeconomy. You build the infrastructure first, and the ecosystem grows around it."

The combined ecosystem is tied closely to South Dakota’s agriculture industry, one of the top economic drivers in the state. The research represents a new use case for corn, connecting South Dakota’s largest commodity crop to one of the most active areas of biomedical innovation and potentially opening a South Dakota-grown pathway for next-generation cancer therapy technologies.

The research is ongoing. Results will inform future development pathways and potential industry partnerships as the team advances the platform toward translational and clinical application.