Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are becoming increasinglyimportant pharmaceuticals for the treatment of a variety of human diseases such as chronic pain, epilepsy, andParkinson's disease. Currently, these compounds are extracted from the plant Cannabis sativa, which produceshundreds of active biological compounds in addition to THC and CBD. The presence of these additionalcompounds makes it difficult to standardize C. sativa extracts for use in medicine. To address this issue,Hyasynth is developing alternative production methods for high purity cannabinoids based on microbialbiosynthesis. Microbial production of cannabinoids is an emerging technology that has received increasingattention from science and industry over the past years. Hyaysnth has developed microbial strains that canefficiently convert glucose into cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCa) and cannabidiol acid(CBDa) as part of their normal metabolic functions. The current process has been validated at lab scale, and thedevelopment of industrial fermentation and purification protocols is the next step towards commercializing thetechnology. The CÉPROCQ team will continue developing these processes for Hyasynth, focusing onassessing scale-up feasibility as well as identifying optimal downstream processes. These protocols will bedirectly used in Hyasynth's bio-production pipeline thereby providing the company with a competitive edge inthe cannabis industry and directly contributing to the development of the Canadian bio-economy.