Tag Archives: innovation

KenSnoke

Emerald Conference Showcases Research, Innovation in Cannabis

By Aaron G. Biros
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KenSnoke

Last week, the 4th annual Emerald Conference brought attendees from around the world to San Diego for two days of education, networking and collaboration. Leading experts from across the industry shared some of the latest research in sessions and posters with over 600 attendees. The foremost companies in cannabis testing, research and extraction brought their teams to exhibit and share cutting edge technology solutions.

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Ken Snoke, president of Emerald Scientific, delivers the opening remarks

The diversity in research topics was immense. Speakers touched on all of the latest research trends, including tissue culture as a micropropagation technique, phenotype hunting, pharmaceutical product formulation, chromatography methods and manufacturing standards, to name a few.

On the first day of the event, Ken Snoke, president of Emerald Scientific, gave his opening remarks, highlighting the importance of data-driven decisions in our industry, and how those decisions provide the framework and foundation for sound progress. “But data also fuels discovery,” says Snoke, discussing his remarks from the event. “I told a story of my own experience in San Diego almost 30 years ago while working in biotech, and how data analysis in a relatively mundane and routine screening program led to discovery. And how we (the folks at Emerald) believe that when we get our attendees together, that the networking and science/data that comes from this conference will not only support data-driven decisions for the foundation of the industry, but it will also lead to discovery. And that’s why we do this,” Snoke added.

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Arun Apte, CEO of CloudLIMS, discusses his poster with an attendee

Snoke says the quality of the content at the poster session was phenomenal and engaging. “We had over 500 attendees so we continue to grow, but it’s not just about growth for us,” says Snoke. “It’s about the quality of the content, and providing a forum for networking around that content. I met a scientist that said this conference renewed his faith in our industry. So I firmly believe that the event has and will continue to have a profound and immensely positive impact on our industry.”

Introducing speakers as one of the chairs for first session focused on production, Dr. Markus Roggen says he found a number of speakers delivered fascinating talks. “This year’s lineup of presentations and posters really showcase how far the cannabis industry has come along,” says Dr. Roggen. “The presentations by Roger Little, PhD and Monica Vialpando, PhD, both showed how basic research and the transfer of knowledge from other industries can push cannabis science forward. Dr. Brian Rohrback’s presentation on the use of chemometrics in the production of pharmaceutical cannabis formulations was particular inspiring.”

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Roger Little, Ph.D., owner of CTA, LLC, presents his research

Shortly after Snoke gave his opening remarks, Dr. Roggen introduced the first speaker, Roger Little, Ph.D., owner of CTA, LLC. He presented his research findings on phenotype hunting and breeding with the help of a cannabis-testing laboratory. He discussed his experience working with local breeders and growers in Northern California to identify high-potency plants early in their growth. “You can effectively screen juvenile plants to predict THC potency at harvest,” says Dr. Little. The other research he discussed included some interesting findings on the role of Methyl jasmonate as an immune-response trigger. “I was looking at terpenes in other plants and there is this chemical called methyl jasmonate,” says Dr. Little. “It is produced in large numbers of other plants and is an immune response stimulator. This is produced from anything trying to harm the plant such as a yeast infection or mites biting the stem.” Dr. Little says that the terpene has been used on strawberries to increase vitamin C content and on tobacco plants to increase nicotine content, among other uses. “It is a very potent and ubiquitous molecule,” says Dr. Little. “Cannabis plants’ immune-response is protecting the seeds with cannabinoid production. We can trick plants to think they are infected and thus produce more cannabinoids, stimulating them to produce their own jasmonate.”

Dr. Hope Jones, chief scientific officer of C4 Laboratories, spoke about tissue culture as an effective micropropagation technique, providing attendees with a basic understanding of the science behind it, and giving some estimates for how it could effectively replace cloning and the use of mother plants. You could overhear attendees discussing her talk throughout the remainder of the show.

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Dr. Hope Jones, chief scientific officer at C4 Laboratories, discusses tissue culture during her talk

Dr. Jones has worked with CIJ on a series of articles to help explain cannabis tissue culture, which you can find here. “In this example, we started with one vessel with 4 explants,” says Dr. Jones. “Which when subcultured 4-6 weeks later, we now have 4 vessels with 16 plants.” She says this is instrumental in understanding how tissue culture micropropagation can help growers scale without the need for a ton of space and maintenance. From a single explant, you can potentially generate 70,000 plants after 48 weeks, according to Dr. Jones.

Those topics were just the first two of many presentations at Emerald Conference. You can take a look at some of the other presentation abstracts in the agenda here. The 5th Annual Emerald Conference in 2019 will be held February 28th through March 1st in San Diego next year.

Philly Tech Week Hosts Conference on Cannabis Investment and Medtech

By Aaron G. Biros
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Philly Tech Week held its first cannabis industry conference this past weekend, hosted by Greenhouse Ventures, a cannabis startup accelerator based in the Northeast. The Innovation in the Cannabis Industry conference brought leaders in cannabis technology, investing and medical research to discuss the changing landscape of the cannabis marketplace in the Northeast.

Tyler Dautrich, co-founder of Greenhouse ventures, welcomes a sold-out crowd.
Tyler Dautrich, co-founder of Greenhouse ventures, welcomes attendees; the event sold out.

Kicking off the event, Tyler Dautrich, co-founder of Greenhouse Ventures, welcomed attendees to the first ever Philadelphia cannabis conference. The initial panel of the day reviewed investment trends and included Scott Greiper, president & founding partner of Viridian Capital Advisors, Marc J. Ross, Esq., founding partner of Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP, Jim Fitzpatrick, advisory board member at Kodiak Capital Group and John Kagia, director of industry analytics at New Frontier Data Analytics. The panel, moderated by Kevin Provost, co-founder of Greenhouse Ventures, examined various financial trends in the marketplace, roadblocks to raising capital for startups and emerging markets.

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The Investment Trends Panel from left to right: Scott Greiper of Viridian Capital, Jim Fitzpatrick of Kodiak Capital, Marc Ross, Esq., John Kagia of New Frontier and moderated by Kevin Provost.

John Kagia of New Frontier provided useful tools in comparing cultivation models as well as industry projections. “It [the legal cannabis market] has largely been dominated by the West Coast,” said Kagia. “The East Coast is very well poised for success.” Scott Greiper, president of Viridian Capital, discussed his top performing markets. “Biotech is definitely the top performing category and a close second is cultivation and retail –production and sale is at the root of every industry,” said Greiper. “At its core, cannabis is an agricultural commodity.” He went on to list infused products as the third top performing market, noting that edibles account for over half of retail sales.

Future Business Outlook Panel from left to right: Steven Schain of Schain Law Firm, Leslie Bocksor of Electrum Partners and Matt Karnes of Greenwave Advisors.
Future Business Outlook Panel from left to right: Steven Schain of Schain Law Firm, Leslie Bocksor of Electrum Partners and Matt Karnes of Greenwave Advisors.

In looking at emerging markets, Leslie Bocksor, president and founder of Electrum Partners, echoed Scott Greiper’s advice for new businesses to stay grounded in the numbers and operations. “Stay focused on solid, tangible data,” Bocksor said. The two also shared a similar view in opportunities in hemp. “Hemp is a very underserved niche and there are ample opportunities for new businesses,” said Bocksor.

State Senator Daylin Leach (D- Montgomery/Delaware), co-sponsor of the bill for Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis legalization, delivered the keynote address. He lauded the bill, mentioning that patient advocates were instrumental in swaying the legislature. “This is the most important piece of legislation for PA in thirty years,” said Leach. “I have always believed in moving this bill forward and very recently, we passed it with a huge bipartisan majority.” Attendees gave Senator Leach a standing ovation in response to his positive outlook on Pennsylvania’s future with cannabis. “This will be a huge new industry and medical technology is vital to moving it forward.”

State Senator Daylin leach was welcomed with a standing ovation.
State Senator Daylin Leach was welcomed with a standing ovation.

In the afternoon, a panel on medical technology discussed the need for more comprehensive diagnostic tools and crowd-sourced data for treatment with cannabis. David Goldstein, chief executive officer and founder of PotBotics, expressed concerns over bringing consistency to patients. “We need to understand how cannabinoids are affecting patients,” said Goldstein. “We want patients to feel confident in their medication.”

David Goldstein (center) sat on a panel discussing med-tech and how it can help the cannabis industry.
David Goldstein (center) sat on a panel discussing med-tech and how it can help the cannabis industry.

The conference closed with a panel of physicians discussing their clinical experience with recommending cannabis and the gaps in medical research. Among them, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, board-certified anesthesiologist and pain management specialist from Pearl River, New York, discussed some of his experience in recommending cannabis in treating neuropathic pain. The closing panel emphasized the need to educate more physicians and some of the obstacles to physicians recommending cannabis. The conference highlighted the Northeast as a quickly emerging cannabis market ripe with business opportunity.