Paulo Waldir Tardioli

I graduated in Accounting Sciences (1986-1989) and Chemical Engineering (1991-1995). I did Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering (1996-1998) in the Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering at Universidade Estadual de Maringá (PPGEQ-UEM, Maringá, Brazil) under supervision of Prof. Flávio Faria de Moraes. During the master's degree, I worked with purification of CGTase enzyme by biospecific affinity adsorption, immobilization of the purified enzyme by covalent linking on glutaraldehyde-activated silica and its application in the production of cyclodextrins (CDs) from starch in a fluidized bed reactor. During 1999-2003, I did doctorate in Chemical Engineering at the Federal University of São Carlos (PPGEQ/UFSCar, São Carlos, Brazil) under supervision of Prof. Raquel L. C. Giordano and a sandwich period (4 months) at CSIC-ICP (Madrid, Spain) under supervision of Dr. José Manoel Guisán. In the doctorate, I worked with the multipoint covalent immobilization of endo- e exoproteases on glyoxyl-activated agarose and their use in the controlled hydrolysis of cheese whey proteins aiming to produce a phenylalanine-free hydrolyzate suitable to phenylketonurics patients. After doctorate, I did a post-doctorate at PPGEQ-UEM (2004-2005) under supervision of Prof. Gisella Maria Zanin, during which I used the multipoint immobilization technique to the CGTase and their performance in the production of CDs. From August 2004 to February 2008, I worked as professor at the Mathematics Department of the UEM and as a collaborating researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering (UEM) in research projects coordinated by Prof. Zanin. In the period 2007-2008 (4 months), I did a post-doctorate at CSIC-ICP (Madrid, Spain) under supervision of Dr. Guisán, during which I worked with immobilization of amyloglycosidase enzyme on agarose activated with different functional groups (amine, epoxy and aldehydes) and their evaluation in the starch hydrolysis. In September 2008, I was employed as professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UFSCar and since then I have worked in the teaching of Thermodynamics to the Chemical Engineering, among other undergraduate subjects, and a researcher in the Biochemical Engineering area. Since 2009, I belong to the permanent team of researchers of the PPGEQ/UFSCar, supervising master and doctorate students. Since 2008, I work with immobilization and stabilization of enzymes aiming their use in bioprocesses of industrial interest. I am currently a leader, along with Prof. Raquel Giordano, of the Enzymatic Process Engineering Research Group (registered in the CNPq Research Group Directory) and CNPq scholarship of Research Productivity 2 Level. Currently, my main research line is the immobilization, stabilization and application of enzymes, aiming to design ?green? bioprocesses to produce biodiesel, biosurfactants/emulsifiers (sugar fatty acid esters, monoacylglycerides), biolubricants, gluconic acid, high-fructose syrup, cyclodextrins, etc. We have evaluated the immobilization of enzymes on different activated supports (magnetic or non-magnetic) and by CLEA technique (crosslinked enzyme aggregates), and evaluated the performance of the biocatalysts in different reactors? configurations. Enzymes that have been immobilized in our group are lipases, proteases, amylases, cellulolytic enzymes, and other hydrolases. Currently, it is of interest to prepare biocatalysts properly designed to cascade reactions, mixture of immobilized lipases and/or co-immobilized lipases with different specificity/selectivity, and modification of lipase surface post-immobilized on solid supports in order to evaluate the effects of these modifications on the activity and operational stability, as well as on the specificity and/or selectivity (chemo-, regio- and enantiospecificity/selectivity) of these new biocatalysts. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)