{"id":57466,"date":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-biotechnology-interns-gain-experience-employment-at-agcore-technologies\/"},"modified":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","slug":"uri-biotechnology-interns-gain-experience-employment-at-agcore-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/08\/uri-biotechnology-interns-gain-experience-employment-at-agcore-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 biotechnology interns gain experience, employment at AgCore Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tPROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 August 21, 2015 — When Winston Ortiz was looking for an internship at the end of his first year in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biotechnology Manufacturing Program, he knew he wanted to work at a smaller company where he could more easily connect with his co-workers and have a varied experience. He found what he was looking for at AgCore Technologies, a Cranston-based company that converts algae into a snack food while also producing fish food for hobby aquarists.<\/p>\n


\nBut Ortiz, a resident of Providence, wasn\u2019t the only 溏心vlog免费B站 biotechnology student who found success at AgCore. The company has offered eight 溏心vlog免费B站 internships in the last three years and hired three of them as employees.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s a win-win situation for all of us,\u201d said Larry Dressler, who started the company in 2013. \u201cI get hungry youth who are dying to learn the business, and they get a great paid experience while earning school credits. They\u2019re well educated, have lab fundamentals, and already understand a lot of the cell biology part of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nDressler\u2019s staff and interns begin by growing a handful of algae cells in small test tubes, then continue growing them in larger and larger tanks, until they fill all 105 of the company\u2019s large vertical tanks. The algae is then filtered and dried before being made into the final products. <\/p>\n


\nDressler calls his product, AgCore Spirulina, \u201cthe healthiest food known to man. It has more protein than steak, it\u2019s vegan approved, it has more iron than spinach, more beta-carotene than carrots, more calcium than milk, more antioxidants than blueberries.\u201d All he needs to grow it are sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and nutrients. And a few 溏心vlog免费B站 interns.<\/p>\n


\nOrtiz said he uses all of the lab skills he learned at 溏心vlog免费B站 in his internship. \u201cAll of the chemistry and biology I learned in class are being put to the test here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always learning something new, and it\u2019s never the same monotonous thing.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nDan Matuszek agrees. The Pawtucket resident had little idea what biotechnology even was when he first enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站, but after a tour of the University\u2019s Providence Biotechnology Center, he was hooked.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s very empowering to manipulate microorganisms to produce high-end products,\u201d said Matuszek, who graduated from the 溏心vlog免费B站 biotech program in 2014 and now serves as the company\u2019s chief biologist while pursuing a graduate degree at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\nBy the end of his first year in the 溏心vlog免费B站 program, he was interning at AgCore, and three months later he was hired full time. \u201cI arranged my class schedule so I could take classes at night for three years, and I went from being a technician at AgCore to a supervisor. Now I have my own interns I can assign to projects.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMatuszek\u2019s internship started before the company was producing food from algae, back when it was converting the algae into a biofuel. \u201cIt was a big paradigm shift going from biofuels to a nutraceutical product,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was a chance to develop my skills, and Larry gave me the freedom and creativity to experiment in order to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe interns don\u2019t just grow and produce algae, though. Each is also assigned a research project that can eventually help to improve the company\u2019s operations. Ortiz is conducting an experiment to determine the precise quantity of nutrients that are required for optimal algae growth.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cToo much of any one nutrient would kill it; too little won\u2019t get the growth we need,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re counting on me to make sure I get the perfect results.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Associate Professor Ed Bozzi, who is responsible for identifying potential biotechnology internship opportunities, is pleased that Dressler has become actively involved in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biotech program. Dressler is a frequent guest speaker in Bozzi\u2019s classes, and he occasionally uses some of the 溏心vlog免费B站 laboratory equipment.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cNo other company has done as much as AgCore in supporting our biotech program through student interns, student employees and class visits,\u201d said Bozzi. \u201cIt\u2019s the perfect partnership where both the students and company benefit from the arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: AgCore Technologies founder Larry Dressler (center) poses with 溏心vlog免费B站 students Winston Ortiz (left) and Dan Matuszek beside tall tanks of algae they produce at the company. (溏心vlog免费B站 photo by Nora Lewis)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 August 21, 2015 — When Winston Ortiz was looking for an internship at the end of his first year in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biotechnology Manufacturing Program, he knew he wanted to work at a smaller company where he could more easily connect with his co-workers and have a varied experience. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}