Dorian A. Des Lauriers
PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI
Entrepreneur Dorian A. Des Lauriers, ProVerde Laboratories' CEO, teamed up with Christopher Hudalla, the company's chief scientific officer, about two years ago to create a green and environmentally friendlier technology to test medicinal marijuana. Des Lauriers — who had started several companies already — was responsible for building the business, as well as finance, marketing and sales. It was incorporated at the end of 2012.
Both men spent most of last year developing their technology and took delivery of equipment in the fall. The company is building a 16,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art lab facility in Milford, at space formerly occupied by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
“We are in the brand-new, bustling medical marijuana industry and we are in the unique position of having some of the coolest science in the world in this space,” said Des Lauriers. “We are in the position to be doing testing, which has been mandated by law in Massachusetts, and most states are now even requiring testing for both efficacy and safety.”
Des Lauriers saw opportunity. And Hudalla, who has a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry, got the new technology up and running for ProVerde.
“We are the first laboratory in the world to be applying this [method] to this applications base,” said Hudalla.
The technology, ultra performance convergence chromatography, was originally developed by Waters Corp. in Milford, explained Des Lauriers.
“We use super critical carbon dioxide in our process,” said Des Lauriers, “(which uses) 100 to 500 times less toxic solvents compared to the prior generations of analytical testing equipment.”
Although there are some challenges that come with being first out of the gate with technology like this, rewards are rich.
“This is changing people's lives dramatically: their family, their friends, their school, their whole life is forever changed by a few drops of this stuff,” Des Lauriers said. “It's really exciting to … prove to people scientifically what the compounds are in this product and the benefit that people get from using it properly.”
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MetroWest 10 To Watch 2014 - Dorian A. Des Lauriers, ProVerde Laboratories
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