Alaina Pardonnet started her career with MBI in 2002 shortly after completing her bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry at Central Michigan University. After spending some time in the small-scale fermentation lab working on MBI’s own novel technologies, she was given the chance to join the contract services team. Whether it was developing fermentations at <10L, scaling them to as much as 3000L, or working on downstream processing, there was an underlying customer service aspect that she found very rewarding. The transition of MBI contract services to MSU BI meant being able to continue the same rewarding work under a larger organization and with the same great people. 

Alaina is now the head of pilot plant fermentation and still finds it very rewarding to help clients achieve their objectives, help move sustainable technologies to the marketplace, and work with an amazing and talented team.