September is Workforce Development Month, and all month long, BioBuzz brings you the stories of people and organizations working to open doors into the life sciences for the next generation of talent. First up: Emmanuel Ortiz, founder of Pristinology, Philadelphia’s first Latino-owned scientific cleaning company, whose company is doing that work one micro-internship at a time. “One thing that’s really important to me is creating opportunities for young people to actually see themselves in the life sciences industry,” Emmanuel says. That mission — turning exposure into opportunity for young people who don’t yet see themselves in science — sits at the center of everything he’s built, from Pristinology’s client relationships to the micro-internship program now reaching students across the city.
From Cleaning Glassware to Owning the Company
BioBuzz caught up with Emmanuel during a conversation at a recent industry conference, where he traced his path into the life sciences back to age 15, working summer jobs at the University of Pennsylvania. Born and raised in North Philadelphia, he got the job through his mother, who wanted him off the streets and into something productive. “She told me: come here, say good morning to people, shake their hands if you can, be kind, don’t take things personal, and of course, network,” Emmanuel recalled.
His early jobs were far from glamorous — sterilizing glassware, processing biohazardous waste, delivering mail across Penn’s campus. But those roles put him face-to-face with doctors, scientists, and principal investigators every day. “I had no idea I was going to own a business years later in the industry, but I was always nice to these people, and I was always kind and willing to bend over backwards for everybody, not expecting anything in return,” he said.
That approach paid off. In 2021, Emmanuel launched Pristinology. “We hit the ground running, and I didn’t think people were going to accept it the way they did,” he said — but many of his first clients were the same scientists and lab staff whose glassware he’d cleaned as a teenager. “They remember me when I was 16 years old.”
A Micro-Internship Built to Open Doors
For Emmanuel, Pristinology’s business is only part of the story. The company has become a launch pad for a broader mission: giving young people from underrepresented neighborhoods — especially North and West Philadelphia — real exposure to careers in life sciences, without requiring a PhD to get in the door.
That mission recently took shape as a hands-on micro-internship with students in the FirstHand Biotech Sprint at the University City Science Center. In a LinkedIn post reflecting on the day, Emmanuel described giving students a hands-on introduction to a part of the industry that “often happens behind the scenes” — contamination control, proper lab cleaning and decontamination, disinfectant contact time, and what it means to gown up and work as if entering a controlled GMP environment.
But the technical training was only half of it. “We also talked about careers, entrepreneurship, how I found my way into the life sciences industry, how Pristinology came to be, the mistakes and lessons along the way, and the importance of being willing to commit to an opportunity before you have every answer figured out,” he wrote.
A few days later, Andrea Poulsen from FirstHand shared something that stuck with him: students said meeting a mentor from an underrepresented background — someone they could relate to — had been especially meaningful. They connected specifically with his story of growing up in North Philadelphia. “That means a lot,” Emmanuel said. “Because for me, this is bigger than teaching students how to clean a laboratory correctly. It is about exposing them to careers they may not have known existed, letting them see the many ways someone can build a future in science, and hopefully helping them recognize that there is a place for them in this industry too.”
His Advice to Anyone Starting Out
Emmanuel often points to a Spanish saying that guides his outlook: “En la calle hay talento” — in the street, there is talent waiting to be discovered. It’s the same belief that shapes his advice to anyone just starting out. Asked what he’d tell someone entering the industry, he didn’t hesitate: “Commit first and figure it out later.” He described saying yes to opportunities before knowing exactly how he’d deliver on them, tuning out doubters, and trusting instinct. “Bottle that gut feeling in your stomach — that intuition, the butterflies that keep you up at night when you get excited about something,” he said. “If you feel the butterflies in your stomach, pay attention to that, and follow it.”
About Pristinology
Founded in 2021, Pristinology positions itself as a leader in laboratory cleanliness in Philadelphia, offering bespoke cleaning solutions ranging from standard wipe-downs to advanced GMP-style decontamination. The company says its meticulous approach ensures every corner of a workspace meets the highest hygiene standards, and it uses an innovative validation process to provide clients with tangible before-and-after data demonstrating the effectiveness of its work — giving labs the confidence to focus on their research in a clean, safe environment.
