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RE: Medicinal Genomics is now on Steemit!
Hi Kevin, nice post! Any chance you could provide a simpler explanation of what Medicinal Genomics does? Would it be correct that you guys test strains for dispensaries or am I missing the point?
The Kannapedia project offers sequencing of close to 1 Million bases in each plant. People have to send us 100ng of DNA that is free of cannabinoids so it can go in the mail. This generates several thousand bases of signature or Single Nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The plant is diploid so each of these SNPs is usually Bi-Allelic an can be either one base or another(binary). Think of 2^(#SNPs) in terms of signature. This is like having a unique hash for each plant . We then post a SHA-256 hash digest of this in a blockchain transaction for time stamping. We also compare the genetics to everything else in our database to generate a genetic distance table (see tree above) that allows users who are used to one strain (that is out of stock or not local) to identify the nearest genetic cousin to the strain. We supply a host of other information on the plant in terms of terpenes and cannabinoids and heterozygosity that can be helpful for breeders and consumers.
We also have a product line that ships PCR assays into 3rd party testing labs in each state for mold and bacteria detection and Male vs Female detection. This is a reagent business that is required as each state is mandating mold testing as this legalizes and the current standard is a 100year old technology known as a Petri Dish. We converted this to quantitative PCR and we sell those reagents to the testing labs in each state.
Medicinalgenomics.com has a bit more on this. We also host the CannMed conferences. Next one is April 2017 and we are looking for a blockchain speaker.
CannMed2016(http://www.medicinalgenomics.com/cannmed2016-videos/)
Very nice! Do you plan on using this information to make some super strains through genetic modification? Some with super high CBD and low THC or some for really specific uses?
Customers may choose to do that with the data. Knowing cannabis pollen can travel many miles, there are some property rights issues to contend with when letting minimally tested GMO into the wild. As a result, I am personally not a fan of this approach given what little we know about the cannabis genome and prefer Marker assisted selection where the genetics help to guide the next cross. I don't have a problem with GMO technology but I disagree with the regulatory capture it has enabled since IP is more easily awarded to a GMO over a novel cross. I'm more favorable on people cloning the terps, flavanoid and cannabinoid pathways out of the plant and into yeast or cyanobacteria as those events can be controlled in fermentors and terminator genes introduced so they are unlikely to propagate into the wild. This is expensive and competing with a weed that does an amazing job getting to 30% cannabinoids/weight. This is a challenging synthetic biology program such that I expect we will see the most amazing immediate work done with just selective breeding of the under tapped genetics around the world.
Not seeing a reply button to your most recent post... but yes, GMO Cannabis has already happened but the current market disdains it like a Monsanto zombie. As the market expands so will the acceptance of GMO but I see so much opportunity in just tweaking the tremendous diversity cannabis currently has. Its 10 fold more polymorphic than humans and 10 fold more cannabis genomes are sprouted every year than humans are born so its genetic blockchain is winning and its arguably farming us not the other way around.
GMO marijuana might be inevitable since once even more states legalize and even more money flows into the space. It will be interesting to see what happens!
The comments end after 5 for now. Cheers!