Current Methods for Cannabis Agriculture and Phytocannabinoid-associated Biomedical Research

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Sang-Hyuck Park

Colorado State University - Pueblo, Institute of Cannabis Research

Dr. Park completed his PhD in Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University. As a postdoctoral fellow, he joined the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. Before joining the cannabis research team, he worked for two years at the Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agriculture Research Service (ARS) as a molecular biologist. Since April 2018, Dr. Park has served as a senior scientist/research liaison in the Institute of Cannabis Research (ICR) at Colorado State University - Pueblo. Dr. Park has been leading multi-tiered research projects with the assistantce of multiple student researchers, seeking insights into fundamental cannabis biology and cannabinoid chemistry to address the intrinsic questions of why cannabis plants produce secondary metabolites such as cannabinoids and terpenoids, how they exploit the chemicals for their survival, and what evolutionary benefits they may have. To address these research questions, he has been collaborating with numerous academic institutes to better understand Cannabis plants through investigating the genetic regulations underlying cannabinoid biosynthesis. The research employs a wide range of molecular-level approaches, from next generation sequencing technology to proteomics. Additionally, he conducts a variety of research projects to explore new therapeutic uses of cannabidiol (CBD).

Collection Overview

With emerging interest in Cannabis and its phytocannabinoids, and especially in cannabidiol (CBD), due to their therapeutic potentials and the recent legal status change, a variety of breeding efforts have been made to develop new hemp varieties to enhance their productivity and quality of major cannabinoids such as Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD, cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN). Aligning with the breeding efforts, several cultivation practices have also been developed and implemented by hemp researchers and growers for sustainable phytocannabinoid production. Additionally, advanced chemical engineering methods for cannabinoid extraction, isolation, and quantification have been explored and extensively used for cannabinoid production. Over the past few years, new methodologies have dramatically been introduced to meet the increased public demands. This methods collection is designed to review current methodologies in the area of Cannabis and cannabinoid research. This collection will include, but not be limited to, methodologies in the hemp agriculture, cannabinoid chemistry and analyses, and its medical- /clinical applications.