The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/406282
38 Fall 2014 Much of the progress has relied on naturally occurring microorganisms that help extract metals from ore and mineral reserves. Due to increasing costs and environmental concerns, the mining industry is starting to expand its use of existing mi- croorganisms in a process called bioleaching. While bioleach- ing is a "mature" technology, already in wide use, the potential to genetically engineer organisms for that purpose is largely unexplored. Christopher DaCunha is ready to change that. "Mining is actually one of the largest biotechnology indus- tries, because you're using biology to extract metals from rock on an extremely large scale," says the CTO of start-up Universal BioMining, "But there's been almost no genetic engineering involved. The biology side of the leaching process with regard to speciation, organism distribution, and population kinetics merits more study." DaCunha and UBM are forging into new territory within that area. Instead of engineering the complex mining envi- ronment to cater to the natural extremophile organisms, which function under extreme physical or geochemical condi- tions, he wants to fip that relationship on its head and geneti- cally engineer organisms to work better in extreme environ- ments. "We're working towards a paradigm shift from engineering the conditions to suit the organisms, to engineer- ing the organisms to suit the conditions," he says. The innovations would mark a leap forward for the mining industry, which still operates with many conventional practices, such as smelting and heap leaching that use highly corrosive sulfuric acid or cyanide to make metals soluble. By developing genetically engineered solutions, UMB plans to in- troduce more effcient and environmentally friendly practices to mining—and potentially double the recovery rate of metals. "There's been great progress in genetics in recent years, but the [mining] industry has yet to take advantage," he says. "We saw a huge opportunity to come in and change the opera- tional paradigm and the way that people think about these processes." PERSEVERANCE DaCunha himself is a novice in the mining industry, but no stranger to intellectual exercises and problem solving. Originally from Massachusetts, he grew up reading encyclope- dias while his friends fipped through comic books; and he enjoyed solving various kinds of puzzles. As a student at WPI, beginning in 1998, he started on a pre- med track but soon gravitated toward biology, engineering, and applied microbiology. His interests steered him to a job with Professor Alex DiIorio '86, who led the WPI Bioprocess Center and directed research and development for the biotech industry. [DiIorio, a much esteemed and respected scientist who earned his master's and doctorate in biotechnology at WPI, died in 2010, after a long illness.] The work with DiIorio became essential for DaCunha, who was strapped for tuition funds and ultimately couldn't afford to continue his education as a full-time student. Instead, he held various posts in DiIorio's lab over the next six years and com- pleted his studies one class per term, graduating in 2009 with a degree in biology and biotechnology. Moving up from lab coor- dinator to lab manager, DaCunha worked with DiIorio on con- tract engineering projects, and also assisted in the design of new lab space when the program moved into the newly built Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park in 2007. he recovery of heavy metals such as copper and gold, along with minerals and fossil fuels, have laid the cornerstones for the advances and the conveniences of the modern world— from electricity, automobiles, airplanes, and rockets to computers, cell phones, and satellite television.