The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/406282
Fall 2014 39 The arrangement with industries also meant DaCunha worked closely with companies at an early stage in his career on manufacturing processes, fermentation and purifcation development, prototype device designs, and FDA validation studies. "The Bioprocess Lab at WPI was unique in that we did contract manufacturing and R&D;," says DaCunha. "It gave me a lot of experience in a lot of different areas of biology and engineering. That really solidifed what I wanted to do—to apply a broad range of knowledge to various projects." Most prominently, DaCunha worked on a project with Edeniq, a California-based frm focused on developing pro- cesses to convert lignocellulosic biomass and agricultural waste, such as wood and switchgrass, into affordable and industry-grade sugars that can be used to produce biofuels. For his part, DaCunha researched how microorganisms from termite hindguts and fungi break down lignocellulose. That included heading off into the woods to collect insects and fungi. "Getting out in the feld and actually digging through rotting logs, fnding bugs and different fungi was really fun for me," he says, "and then bringing them back to the lab and doing something useful and benefcial with biofuels was really an awesome opportunity." DaCunha developed protocols to extract organisms from termites' stomachs that break down cellulose, and did muta- genesis studies—using ultraviolet radiation to mutate and isolate genetically altered organisms. The results were isolates 70 times more active than the original organisms, a signifcant breakthrough for cellulosic conversion—and for Edeniq. The success led to a job offer, prompting DaCunha to move to Cali- fornia after graduation. As a senior R&D; scientist at Edeniq, he found himself fulfll- ing his broad interests, taking on a wide range of responsibili- ties in the company's genetics, biochemistry, pilot plant, and bioreactor development programs. The biofuels research allowed him to explore process engineering and genetic engi- neering, laying the groundwork for his leap into those felds with Universal BioMining. BRAIN GAMES DaCunha's path into genetic engineering and biotech innova- tions for the mining industry frst passed through space. Dating back to his days at WPI, perennial puzzle cracker DaCunha and a colleague liked to play brain games, he says, such as the planning behind the colonization of Mars. This