Cloned cannabis cells with 12 times more potency are grown in Israeli bioreactor

[dan6]

www.timesofisrael.com/cloned-cannabis-cells-with-12-times-more-potency-are-grown-in-israeli-bioreactor/

 

Cloned cannabis cells with 12 times more potency are grown in Israeli bioreactor

Company behind the tech says each gram of its product will stretch much further in treating patients than a gram from cannabis plant — and needs far less water and other resources

By NATHAN JEFFAY 26 October 2022, 12:53 pm   

 

 

An Israeli company has cloned hemp cells and used a bioreactor to grow them into a substance with all the active compounds of cannabis — and 12 times the potency.

BioHarvest Sciences says the breakthrough could make the medical benefits of cannabis available in cheaper, cleaner and greener form. It has started applying for the necessary licenses to manufacture and sell its product for medical use in Israel and the United States.

“We don’t grow the plant at all,” BioHarvest CEO Ilan Sobel told The Times of Israel. Instead, the process involves “replicating” cells taken from a hemp plant in big tanks called bioreactors to produce huge numbers of identical cells.

“We grow them in huge bioreactors in just three weeks — while regular cannabis takes 14 to 23 weeks,” Sobel said. “Our tech can also significantly increase the levels of active ingredients, as a percent of the weight, versus what is found normally in the plant.”

And so, every gram emerging from the bioreactor in Rehovot requires less water and other resources to grow than a gram from a cannabis plant— and will stretch considerably further in terms of treating patients, Sobel said.

 

He expects the impact of his innovation on the cannabis market to be “breathtaking.” He declined to detail the proprietary technology that is used, but said that the potency has been increased 12-fold purely by changing the environment inside the bioreactor.

The biomass produced by BioHarvest Sciences by cloning hemp cells (courtesy of BioHarvest Sciences)

Sobel said: “By adjusting specific conditions to which the cells are exposed, we can create different desired compositions of active ingredients, meaning we can dial up and down the various cannabinoids [compounds].”

The biomass that comes out of the bioreactor consists of cells that are identical to those found in cannabis derived from plants, and there is no genetic modification, Sobel said. Patients can receive it in smokable form or as pills, drops, chewing gum, and a range of other formats.

As well as containing high levels of the active compounds, the biomass is full-spectrum, which means it has the full variety of chemical compounds found in the cannabis plant, and not just some of them.

“Our composition has significant amounts of both major cannabinoids such as CBD and THC as well as significant amounts of what have been termed minor cannabinoids,” Sobel said.

BioHarvest CEO Ilan Sobel (courtesy of Ilan Sobel)

The controlled environment of the bioreactor could overcome two challenges of cannabis farming: contamination and crops with varying levels of active compounds. Sobel said that the protected environment of the bioreactor keeps out contaminants like fungi, and the controlled nature of the method delivers a product that has consistent compound levels.

BioHarvest claims that if its biomass takes off, it will deliver the benefits of medical cannabis more cheaply and with less environmental impact. This is because, according to company calculations, each kilowatt of electricity produces eight times more material from the bioreactor than what is produced from plants. When it comes to water, each gallon produces 54 times more bioreactor material than plant material. Land requirements are reduced by more than 90%.

The company’s resource-saving growing techniques are already in use for growing grapes, olives and pomegranates.

“The bottom line is that we can make cannabis and hemp far more useful than before, at lower cost to our planetary resources,” Sober commented. “It is a wellness and sustainability solution from Israel that can provide a truly inspiring contribution to the world.”

[dylant]

genetically engineered ...

[Military Grade]

I think there was a thread with something similar to this last year, I'll stick to all natural thanks

[MindSoup]

8 hours ago, dan6 said:

the potency has been increased 12-fold

Wouldn't that make it like 300% THC? 

 

Joey Diaz will be pleased . 

[twigs]

as long as the synthetic oids don’t make people want to kill themselves and then gets quickly withdrawn ..again 

 

it’s never ‘just’ about treating people, but it’s ‘always’ about profits..

 

didnt they do the same with Fentanyl? 

 

that worked well didn't it?

 

 

[latigid aikon]

44 minutes ago, twigs said:

didnt they do the same with Fentanyl? 

 

that worked well didn't it?

It goes back much further than that, Heroin was sold as a non-addictive morphine substitute originally.

Quote

In 1895, Bayer marketed diacetylmorphine as an over-the-counter drug under the trademark name Heroin. It was developed chiefly as a morphine substitute for cough suppressants that did not have morphine's addictive side-effects. Morphine at the time was a popular recreational drug, and Bayer wished to find a similar but non-addictive substitute to market. However, contrary to Bayer's advertising as a "non-addictive morphine substitute," heroin would soon have one of the highest rates of addiction among its users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#History

[kc stoner]

Sounds crazy we live in crazy times 

[Boojum]

Fuck this Frankenstein shit

[catweazle1]

@twigs When the opioid crisis came to a head in the US and I became aware of Fentanyl, I couldn't believe it was prescribed for relatively trivial pain situations i.e not terminally-ill patients. I feel that this sort of development in cannabis is going to put it in the same problem space as opioids in the decades to come in mental health terms. It's about to become dangerous because we all know what many people are like. CHS and CVS will probably become much more common. People won't be able to argue that it is relatively benign activity compared to other substances.

Edited November 4, 2022 by catweazle1

[Boojum]

6 minutes ago, catweazle1 said:

@twigs When the opioid crisis came to a head in the US and I became aware of Fentanyl, I couldn't believe it was prescribed for relatively trivial pain situations i.e not terminally-ill patients.

 

 

Deliberately so, both with fentanyl and with oxycontin, the manufacturers basically bribed doctors to prescribe as much as possible, the opioid crisis was entirely created by the pharmaceutical companies and greedy doctors who only cared about the money. It's a fucking shameful episode.

[catweazle1]

@Boojum That Israeli company is planting the seeds for more human misery and another nail in Israel's already dubious reputation.The company lauding that  “It is a wellness and sustainability solution from Israel that can provide a truly inspiring contribution to the world" is just one monumental greed-motivated crock of shit.

[Boojum]

It's just fucking about with stuff that doesn't need fucking about with, anyone who seriously claims that cloning cells in some fucking 'bioreactor' is in any way, shape or form better than just growing plants under the sun, like nature has been doing for millions of years needs to have a fucking word with themself The only thing 'better' is their profit margins if they actually get anyone to accept this shit.

[AnonyMice]

Ha yeah.. they replicated and made a 10x more potent synthetic cannabis here too, & how did that go? 

[twigs]

2 hours ago, catweazle1 said:

People won't be able to argue that it is relatively benign activity compared to other substances

 

only if you choose 1000% pharmaceutically toxic gmo weed! 

 

o’naturel no problem! 

 

it’s already happened mate with the weight loss (name escapes me) synthetic thc-v drug. It made people commit suicide so they quickly pulled it 

 

- fucking toxic people making toxic drugs - 

 

[Cursed]

everyone would have a go if offered some though, right?

 

I'd certainly try the super strength weed once.

 

that's going to be one hell of a whitey too