Dr. Oliver Kayser, a global leader in cannabis research, joins Trait
TORONTO, NOVEMBER 7, 2018 —Trait Biosciences Inc. (“Trait” or the “Company“), a bio-technology leader in the cannabis industry, continues to attract the world’s top scientific experts to its mission to create pure, safe and high-quality cannabis products.
Trait’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Richard Sayre, said the recent and ongoing recruitment of top researchers is the realization of the Company’s mission to be the innovation leader in the cannabis industry.
“We are bringing some of the world’s best minds to our scientific team, which is quickly becoming unrivalled in the cannabis industry in its depth, breadth and experience,” said Sayre. “These new additions to the team will accelerate the development of our proprietary technologies that are creating, among other things, pure water-soluble cannabis and cannabinoid products that have more predictable onset times and improved taste, as well as our technologies that increase yields while at the same time reducing the use of chemicals in cannabis production.”
The Company has recruited the following internationally respected scientists:
- Oliver Kayser, from Technical University Dortmund, Germany. Dr. Kayser is the Dean of the Faculty of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering andadjunct Professor for Natural Product Biosynthesis at the Technical University Dortmund, Germany. With over 300 published articles, Dr. Kayser is a world leader in combinatorial biosynthesis of cannabinoids, metabolic engineering of plants and screening for new plant derived drugs. He brings this research to Trait’s development of enhanced cannabis plants and products.
- Erick LeBrun, Senior Scientist Genomics & Bioinformatics from Baylor University. Dr. LeBrun is a specialist in microbial ecology, metagenomics and bioinformatics. Erick’s expertise is in using genetics to explore microbial community dynamics and novel bioinformatics analyses to turn large genomic data sets into meaningful information for real world application.
- Omar Holguin, from New Mexico State University, Santa Fe, NM. An assistant professor at the NMSU Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Dr. Holguin specializes in mass spectral analysis of plants; primary and secondary metabolism.
- Jennifer Stamps, a neurological specialist in the human performance evaluation of new products. Her key areas of expertise include taste, olfaction, flavor perception, chemosensory testing, human psychophysics, human neuroanatomy, behavioural neurology and clinical research. She is an expert on flavour and olfactory enhancement.
- Tim Travers, Senior Scientist in Computational and Structural Biologyfrom Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Travers is an expert in computational modeling of protein structures and protein ligand interactions. Dr. Travers is using computational approaches to design novel protein structures that facilitate enhanced and targeted enzyme activity as well as protein-ligand interactions.
The five new researchers join the Trait’s Scientific Team led by Dr. Sayre, previously a Level 6 scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Sayre has been described by Nature as one of the top five crop scientists who could change the world.
“I’m delighted to have such established, recognized researchers and scientists join our team,” said Trait’s CEO, Joseph del Moral. “The emerging cannabis industry is going to have a transformative effect on our society and on a number of industries. Our goal is to develop the platform technologies upon which the future of the cannabis industry will be built. These additions to our scientific team are going help us achieve that goal faster.”
About Trait
With a team of internationally recognized scientists who are applying best-in-class technology and agricultural science, Toronto-based Trait is an emerging biotechnology leader in the cannabis industry. Its Consumer Division is developing technologies to create enhanced cannabinoids that have improved taste, scent, onset, bioavailability and stability, including a process for generating water-soluble cannabinoids that does not rely on nanotechnology. Trait’s Producer Division is developing technologies to increase yields and plant safety, including its ultrahigh yield “Super Producer” plants that can dramatically increase yields of targeted cannabinoids relative to other plants, and its RNAi crop protection platform, which reduces the accumulation of toxins in cannabis without the need for pesticides or fungicides, providing for more consistent and safer cannabis products.
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