May 27, 2019 – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – PRESS RELEASE – Atlas Biotechnologies Inc., along with its wholly owned subsidiary Atlas Growers Ltd., has announced that it has secured a research collaboration with Harvard University’s Medical School. Atlas is a founding partner of the new International Phytomedicines and Medical Cannabis Institute at Harvard (Harvard IPI), which will represent one of the largest global efforts in research on medical cannabis and phytomedicines.
The Harvard IPI was established by Harvard’s Global Health Catalyst (HGHC), which is a cross institutional program at Harvard funded by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, several Harvard Medical Institutions (including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital), as well as a growing number of non-profits, industry and foundations. A flagship initiative of HGHC is the creation of the world’s premier comprehensive cloud-based cancer center, powered by artificial intelligence and faculty from the world’s leading institutions including Harvard University, University of Heidelberg, Oxford University and industry partners like IBM.
Modern medicine utilizes many plant-derived compounds as the basis for the creation of evidence-based pharmaceutical drugs. As a Harvard IPI partner, Atlas will have many exciting opportunities to:
- development, investigations and quality assurance of phytomedicine products to be supplied by Atlas for pain and other neurological conditions;
- provide input and guidance into research and trials being performed by HGHC, and participate in dissemination of the results of these collaborations;
- supply cannabis products to Harvard Medical for use in trials and for potential distribution by Harvard Medical for R&D purposes to other post-secondary institutions in the United States;
- receive research and quality assurance on Atlas products, and
- collaborate on expanding education on the benefits of phytomedicines.
Atlas has provided initial grant funding to Harvard IPI, and will participate in ongoing annual funding programs over the next 3 years based on mutual targeted research goals.
Sheldon Croome, Atlas President and CEO noted, “Atlas was founded in 2015 with the vision of improving lives by focusing on medical applications for cannabis, and advancing knowledge of its largely unexplored properties, through targeted clinical trials and research collaborations. We are proud to have been selected as a partner by Harvard Medical, arguably the worlds’ most prestigious and progressive medical research institution. We look forward to building a long-term relationship with Harvard Medical. Together, our work discovering new properties of cannabis for targeted medical applications will benefit people across the globe.”
As part of its in-house R&D program, Atlas is developing a broad range of unique cannabis cultivars, which will target production and extraction of rare cannabinoids and other phytochemicals for use in targeted medical research applications. There are currently well over 100 known cannabinoids.
