This week, Kevin McKernan, Founder and Chief Science Officer at Medicinal Genomics will be joining us on our Private and Professional forum to discuss the latest developments in cannabis IP, genetic testing, and all things cannabis from his expert position in the industry.
Who: Kevin McKernan, CEO of Medicinal Genomics and CannMed
What: Cannabis genomics, IP, genetic testing and marker-assisted breeding to accelerate cultivation
Where: The GNET private forum
When: Wednesday, July 17th at 11 AM PST
When it comes to cannabis genetics and microbial detection, Medicinal Genomics is in a class of its own. Medicinal Genomics was born from Courtagen Life Sciences, a CLIA certified genetics testing laboratory that specialized in identifying rare pediatric neurological conditions. Chief Science Officer, Kevin McKernan, worked on the Human Genome Project and was the first scientist to sequence the Cannabis genome. He and the Medicinal Genomics team of DNA experts developed a full suite of cannabis microbial detection tests that have been fully validated on the cannabis plant in an ISO-certified laboratory. The team also offers a cannabis genome sequencing service to growers, as well as a number tests that can be used for marker-selection breeding.
This has been a turbulent year in cannabis. Kevin will be here to help explain how Medicinal Genomics is adding a level of trust and transparency to cannabis. Start generating those questions HERE.
Hello Kevin,
I wrote you several emails about a suspected Baterial Gall found in Cannabis at two different locations in the USA
The first was a single gall on a small branch from a grower
Found another Gall the grower (different grower) made 20 clones from a mother and half had galls at the root line!
John McPartland suspects bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
We both suspect you might be best to confirm this and maybe write an article? With or without John’s help.
This is one of the 10 that were from 20 clones made from one mother, the 2 growers are not in touch are not sharing they just both were found this year, I have some live and dead material to send to you, it is basically only stem, legal in the USA to post or deliver to your lab.
Hey @watson! “AMA” stands for “Ask Me Anything” and it is a typed Q&A session in which our host interacts with the entire community, including industry leaders like yourself.
I have know Kevin since 2011 when he visited Amsterdam for sequencing the Cannabis genome, so he types or talks? I understand we type questions for him. So he olny types answers?
@kevin_mckernan thanks so much for being here with us today! You have an extensive background in genetic research. What was the initial inspiration for Medicinal Genomics? What made you want to make a foray into cannabis?
Dave, I didn’t reply to this email as I saw this same picture in a Phylos deck and it appears they are working on the same problem. I dont think it makes sense for us to sequence this so you can hand it to them. I do know there will be pathogen specialists at CannMed presenting and they probably have the sequence of this agrobacterium.
Thats a hefty question. We tend to operate with 2 years plans:) But we hope to have dozens of assays growers can buy and utilize in a Point of Grow environment. Human Pathogens, Plant Pathogens and markers in the plant that help predict chemotype and yield. We also believe we can help accelerate breeding with the genome sequences we have with the Jamaican Lion project. I would expect in 5 years, Cannabis SNP chips, Gene Expression arrays, Exome sequencing will be commonly performed on most important crosses.
Can you share a little about the genetic mapping that was done in the Jamaican Lion project? What impact do you hope to have on the cannabis community by releasing this information?
I was involved in building the SOLiD sequencer at Life Tech/ABI which was predominantly being used to sequence cancer biopsies. A few friends with Cancer pointed me to Guzmans work and I was shocked the genome hadn’t been sequenced so I sequenced it hoping it might open up some business opportunities. In reality, I had no idea what to do with the data at the time as the first genomes were so fragmented due to the complexity of the genome and the technology available at the time. I want to thank Dave and Rob for hosting me over in Holland when I we were just trying to figure out what to do with MGC.
We have performed 50X coverage Whole genome shotgun sequencing with an Illumina NovaSeq on 10 hemp lines, a THCV line, and 29 other chemotyped lines pulled in from dispensaries. The THCV line has an interesting mutation we think may govern the synthesis of THCV. We would love to confirm this mutation in other THCV lines and make a test anyone can order to help breed for more THCV/CBDV. We will give people MGC store credits ($420) for any DNA (no live tissue) that has THCV expression so we can prove the test works.
What is the most common misconception people have about the work your doing? I ask because we get tons of YouTube comments on the Canna Cribs channel and there’s this mentality out there among some people that corporate science and cannabis don’t mix.
