Grow Your Skills in the Budding Cannabis Industry 2-Day Symposium (Day 2 Session 1)
The rapid growth of the cannabis industry has provided a rare opportunity for scientists to be part of an emerging field. With that expansion, concerns related to the growth, extraction, and chemical analysis of cannabis have also increased. As new jurisdictions allow for cannabis, a disparate and constantly evolving compliance world has been created. Ideas for leveraging the research capabilities of academics to enhance problem solving and workflow optimization when working with the cannabis industry will be presented.
Key Learning Objectives:
- Strategies for building a strong team in a cannabis facility
- Approaches for addressing challenges of cannabis analysis
- Understanding the intersection of product quality and safety
Who Should Attend:
- Future or current cannabis lab managers
- Future or current cannabis testing lab analysts and chemists
- Entrepreneurs considering starting a cannabis testing lab
For any questions please contact Jordan Ramesh: [email protected]
Presenter: Julie Kowalski (Lab Director, 1st Choice Labs)
Julie is the Lab director at 1st Choice Labs, a cannabis testing laboratory in Michigan. She is also a technical consultant serving the cannabis and hemp testing markets. Her professional experience includes troubleshooting, method development and validation for GC, GC-MS, LC, and LC-MS/MS. She previously served as Scientific Director and Chief Scientific Officer for a cannabis testing lab and began working with cannabis in 2011. She has previously served as the President of the North American Chemical Residue Workshop, served on AOAC Expert Review Panels, the Cannabis Scientific Task Force for Washington State and is currently co-chairing the AOAC CASP product Centric Working Group and a member of the AOAC CASP Proficiency Testing Advisory Task Force.
Presenter: Edward A. Palumbo II (Senior R&D Scientist, Charlotte's Web Inc.)
My research interests are focused on natural products and medicinal chemistry. As an R&D Scientist, I have worked with multi-disciplinary teams in quality management, marketing, manufacturing, product development, and process engineering to create innovative products in the dietary supplement industry. I have ample experience developing and validating analytical methods to monitor manufacturing processes at cGMP facilities, while using DoE and QbD to minimize testing and experimentation costs.
Outside of our laboratory, I guide preclinical & clinical research initiatives with academic research partners & CROs, while initiating safety studies required by regulatory agencies, domestic & abroad. I understand the regulatory challenges and hurdles posed by acquiring GRAS status, navigating the U.S FDA IND process, and gaining access to international nutraceutical markets. My goal is to demonstrate the scientific merit of dietary supplement use, while driving research initiatives to generate insightful PK and PD data on novel hemp formulations. Ultimately, I aim to minimize costs and maximize return on investment through technically-driven product development strategies coupled with collaborative research.
Presenter: Christophe Deckers (Agilent Sample Prep Application Engineer, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)
Christophe Deckers completed his Bachelor in Biochemistry at l' Universite du Quebec à Montreal. He was then introduced to fundamental research during his Chemistry Masters degree in the leading Laboratory of Molecular Medicine directed by professor emeritus Richard Beliveau. He has previously worked at St-Justine’s Hospital, doing cancer research using multiple chromatographic and sample preparation techniques.
Subsequently, he worked in technical support at GE Healthcare assisting customers using a variety of bio-separation technologies. Christophe joined Agilent Technologies in 2005 and is Application Scientist for sample preparation in the USA and Canada. Christophe has15 years of experience in sample preparation and is very passionate about it.
Presenter: Jean-Francois Roy (Agilent MS Application Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)
Jean-Francois has been working at Agilent for nearly 13 years, in various roles with a common theme: mass spectrometry (MS). His current position of MS Application Scientist has led him to get involved in multiple pre-sales and post-sales activities, supporting the Canadian market. His home base is Montreal, and he has been involved for the past three years in developing methodologies revolving around Canada-focused cannabis testing.
