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Kevin McKernan
Chief Scientific Officer
Medicinal Genomics
SPEAKER
SCIENCE

Endotoxins in Cannabis Microbial Testing
We report the presence of Endotoxin in high and low CFU/g cannabis flower samples. In some jurisdictions, cannabis samples over 100,000 CFU/g of total aerobic count, are prioritized for decontamination using ozone, E-beam, X-ray or gamma ray exposure. While these methods are well known for reducing viable colony forming units, they are less effective at removing the DNA or endotoxin. Less is known about the residual endotoxin levels that might exist on such decontaminated products. To estimate this, we evaluated endotoxin levels of hemp samples in Massachusetts that are not subject to microbial testing and compared those to store-bought cannabis flower that must pass 100,000 CFU/g limits in Total Aerobic Count testing. We find significant levels (over 500EU/g) of endotoxin on all pre-rolls tested, regardless of CFU/g microbial testing requirements. Endotoxins on inhaled products can trigger asthmatic attacks. In light of a recent asthmatic fatality in a Massachusetts pre-roll facility, further scrutiny of decontamination procedures and their resulting endotoxin levels is required.
BIO
Kevin is the CSO and Founder of Medicinal Genomics and has pioneered the genomics of cannabis and hemp to build a stronger scientific environment (Kannapedia.net) for the study of cannabis based therapeutics and blockchain technologies for tracking and verifying cannabis genetics. Previously, Kevin was the CSO of Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc., and was Vice President and Director of R&D of Life Technologies where he managed the development of Life Technologies next generation SOLiD sequencing technology. Integral to the SOLiD R&D process, Kevin oversaw over 100 research collaborations exploring the new biological frontiers with next generation sequencing and saw particular excitement and traction in human tumor sequencing. Kevin initiated an R&D project to investigate chemFET semiconductor based DNA sequencing and spearheaded a process to acquire the DNA sequencing company Ion Torrent for $350M. These collaborations resulted in hundreds of publications and 7 Journal covers from Science Translational Medicine to Nature.

Kevin was the President and CSO of Agencourt Personal Genomics, a startup company he co-founded in 2005 to invent revolutionary sequencing technologies that dropped the cost of sequencing a human genome from $300M to $3,000; a 100,000-fold improvement in sequencing speed and cost in a few years. In 2000, Kevin Co-Founded Agencourt Biosciences Corporation and acted as the CSO until it was acquired by Beckman Coulter. Kevin also managed the R&D for the Human Genome Project at Whitehead Institute/MIT resulting in several patents for nucleic acid purification. Kevin holds a B.S. in Biology from Emory University with a focus on cloning and expressing Norepinephrine Transporters. When not decoding DNA and unraveling the mysteries of cannabis medicine, Kevin enjoy boating, skiing, and gardening.

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