Grant: College and Community Innovation Program

With the advent of Canadian legalization of cannabis, its utilization and its extracts have become an important emerging Canadian biotechnology subsector, with substantial economic impacts. The sector involves large companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) focused on cannabis production, harvesting, curing, analyzing, transporting, processing, formulating and marketing, all of which face scientific and technical challenges across the manufacturing cycle. Cannabis is emerging from a historically prohibition-like framework, a past that has limited research opportunities relative to other bio-active substances. The program proposed by Langara College aims to apply the latest technology to close the knowledge gap, address the needs of this new industry, and contribute to the unique opportunity to establish Canada as the leader in applied cannabis science. The program of research spans a wide spectrum of investigation, with applications to plant genomics, plant metabolomics, cellular response to cannabinoids, optimization of processing, and evaluating nanoparticles for delivery of bio-active compounds. The program will address questions of importance to industry such as: What is the genetic basis of cannabis varietal designation? What is the relationship between varietal and chemical production? How does the chemical expression relate to consumer preference and impact? How can new varietals be developed in a targeted way? How can plants be analyzed quickly to optimize growing decisions? How are commercially important compounds isolated from the plants economically and in an ecologically safe way? Connecting industry, College researchers, students, and other institutions, the program will leverage federal funds to build global competitiveness in the sector and develop skilled people in the field.