CannMed Coffee Talk

David Hawley is Principal Scientist at Fluence, where he steers the company’s global Cannabis Crop Sciences program. His team’s research, which often appears in peer-reviewed publications, has identified specific and diverse lighting strategies that consider crop yield, morphology, quality, and economics that maximize commercial growers’ objectives. 

At CannMed 26, David presented a poster titled, “Two novel lighting strategies to reduce operational expenses while boosting quality and yield”

During our conversation, we discuss:

What makes lighting the biggest controllable cost lever in commercial cannabis cultivation

What causes photobleaching and white-tipping, and why it’s more detrimental to bag appeal than cannabinoid or terpene content

How the Red Sandwich strategy pairs top and under-canopy lighting to boost efficiency without inducing photobleaching

How growers can calculate ROI on lighting upgrades and improvements

and more 

This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannabis Research Coalition 

The Cannabis Research Center & Coalition (CRC), founded by Dr. Allison Justice, is a professional group dedicated to advancing cannabis cultivation and post harvest processing. 

Their cooperative research model, inspired by successful horticulture and greenhouse research collaborations, allows members to benefit from pooled resources, gaining access to cutting-edge, science-based research at a fraction of the cost. 

Learn more at cannabisrc.org 

Additional Resources

Fluence on YouTube

David Hawley’s peer-reviewed studies

University of Guelph — Dr. Youbin Zheng’s lab

Utah State University — Dr. Bruce Bugbee’s lab

Wageningen University (Netherlands) — Dr. Leo Marcelis

CannMed Video Archive

Dr. Carrie Cuttler is currently a Co-Director of the Cannabis Research Center (CRC) at Washington State University Center (WSU). She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at WSU. Carrie directs research in The Health and Cognition (THC) lab that focuses on examining both the beneficial and detrimental effects of cannabis and cannabinoids.

Her recent work focuses on examining the therapeutic potential of cannabigerol (CBG), as well as effects of chronic cannabis use and acute cannabis intoxication on cognition (e.g., memory, creativity, executive functioning), mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, autism, OCD, PTSD, ADHD), physical health (e.g., pain, sleep) and stress.

At CannMed 26, Carrie presented a poster titled “Attention Please! Effects of Chronic and Acute Cannabis Use on Cognition and Symptoms of ADHD”

During our conversation, we discuss:

Why people with ADHD are more likely to use cannabis and what they report it helps with

The details of Carrie’s study which compared the acute effects of cannabis on regualr users with and without ADHD as well as non-users with and without ADHD

How participants with ADHD showed reduced impulsivity on objective cognitive tests when under the influence of cannabis, not just self-report

Why those same participants also showed worse performance on five other cognitive measures at the same time

What Carrie’s next study looks like, including her interest in testing CBG (a non-intoxicating cannabinoid) for ADHD

The key limitations of the study and takeawys for clinicians and patients

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: The Society of Cannabis Clinicians

The Society of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC) is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to advancing evidence-based education, research, and clinical practice in medical cannabis. 

On September 4th, the SCC is hosting a VIRTUAL version of its MedCannCon Conference titled Cannabis at the Crossroads—Integrating Cannabis into Modern Healthcare. The conference will focus on three timely issues: 

Harm reduction, patient safety and access

The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape surrounding hemp, cannabis, and federal policy

Women’s health across the lifespan

Learn more and register at cannabisclinicians.org

Manny Maminakis is the inventor and CEO of Cannamatrix INC, a cannabis bioinfomratics platform. Prior to Cannamatrix, Manny spent 12 years in the cannabis industry as an award winning cannabis cultivator and edible chef.

At CannMed 26, he presented a poster titled “Computational Identification of Volatile Sulfur Compound Synthase Homologs in Cannabis sativa Using Profile Hidden Markov Models”

During our conversation, we discuss:

What volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) are and why they give certain cannabis strains their skunky, garlicky smell

How Manny’s path from cannabis cultivator and award-winning edible chef led him into bioinformatics at Canimatrix

Why the GMO (“garlic mushroom onion”) cultivar was chosen as the ideal candidate for studying VSCs

How hidden Markov models were used to find candidate VSC genes by comparing cannabis proteins to garlic, onion, and other sulfur-producing plants

And more!

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannamatrix

Cannamatrix is a genetic software company that empowers growers to select the best of the best from their seed stock. Their patented system of genetic testing with predictive algorithms helps growers harness the maximum potential of Cannabis while preserving the natural genetic makeup and reducing resource allocation, and saving time and money!

Visit cannamatrix.com to learn more

Related Resources

Computational Identification of Candidate Gene Families for Volatile Sulfur Compound Biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa Using Profile Hidden Markov Models

@MannytheCannaBiologist on IG

Review the Podcast

CannMed Archive

Dr. Kristofer Marsh is the Chief Scientific Officer of Smithers Cannabis Testing Services Division, as well the State Director for Smithers’ New York laboratory. He has over 9 years of experience in the Cannabis testing industry spanning operations in 11 U.S. states and is a member of the Cannabis Science Section with the American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL).

At CannMed 26, Kris presented “Pyrocannabinoids: An investigation into smoked cannabinoid isolates”

During our conversation, we discuss:

What pyrocannabinoids are and how they’re formed

Why THCA, CBD, and THCV isolates were chosen as the focus of the study

What new cannabinoids were created after those isolates were combusted

How this change in cannabinoids raises questions about the entourage effect in smoked versus ingested cannabis

Next steps for pyrocannabinoid research

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision of the American Chemical Society (CANN)

Since 2015, CANN has been building a strong network of scientists in the cannabis space to promote scientific innovation, safety, and development through education, research, and the empowerment of the scientific community.

To learn more about what CANN has to offer please visit their website at www.cann-acs.org.

Additional Resources

Real Isolates

Smithers

Connect with Kris on Linkedin

Review the Podcast

CannMed Archive

Alisha Holloway is the Chief Scientific Officer at Phylos where she leads the R&D group that focuses on foundational genomic research, development of high-throughput genetic and chemical testing capabilities, discovery of genetic markers, and the development of new cannabis varieties via classical and marker-assisted breeding.

At CannMed 26, she will present “Enhancing Cannabis Quality via Marker-Assisted Selection for Improved Solventless Extraction Yield”

During our conversation, we discuss:

What solventless extraction is and why it’s gaining popularity

The traits that make a cannabis plant a “good washer”

How Alisha’s team designed and conducted a washability study across hundreds of plant samples

How they identified genetic markers for good washers that hold up across diverse genetic backgrounds

How marker-assisted selection accelerates the breeding process

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: The Cannabis Research Center & Coalition

The Cannabis Research Center & Coalition (CRC), founded by Dr. Allison Justice, is a professional group dedicated to advancing cannabis cultivation and post harvest processing. CRC partners with Universities and The Hemp Mine LLC, an industry leader in cannabis genetics and production, to tackle the cultivation and post harvest challenges facing today’s cannabis industry.

Their cooperative research model, inspired by successful horticulture and greenhouse research collaborations, allows members to benefit from pooled resources, gaining access to cutting-edge, science-based research at a fraction of the cost.

Learn more at cannabisrc.org

Additional Resources

Phylos.bio, Instagram, Linkedin

[Blog] What Makes a Cannabis Variety “Wash Well”? The Science Behind High-Yield Hash Plants

https://www.instagram.com/shwale/

Register for CannMed 26

Meet the CannMed 26 Speakers

Review the Podcast

CannMed Archive