LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Phytecs, a biotechnology company that researches and develops new healthcare and nutrition products which target the body’s endocannabinoid system, today announced the formation of its Advisory Board headed by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam. The Advisory Board will provide guidance to Phytecs on research and development, strategic planning, regulatory and political affairs.
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Global Director of Research for Phytecs, will serve as Advisory Board Chair. Dr. Mechoulam is a professor on the faculty of the Institute for Drug Research at Hebrew University in Israel. He is a leading expert on the chemistry and biological activity of natural products and medicinal agents. His research led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system in the early 1990’s. Dr. Mechoulam was awarded the Israel Prize in 2000, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, and the Rothschild Prize in 2012.
“The endocannabinoid system regulates many key physiological processes from feeding to memory formation, perhaps even extending to the biochemistry underlying individual personalities,” said Dr. Mechoulam. “I look forward to researching and developing products that support balanced endocannabinoid system function in both health and disease. Technical innovation by Phytecs in natural products chemistry, genomics and bioinformatics may create the next generation of cannabinoid medicines.”
Joining Dr. Mechoulam on the Phytecs Advisory Board will be:
Mr. Tony Coelho, former six-term United States congressman from California and House Majority Whip. Mr. Coelho was the primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act and has served as chairman and CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation. President Bill Clinton appointed Coelho to serve as Chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities from 1994 to 2001. Clinton also appointed Coelho as Co-Chair to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, a position he held until his appointment as general chairman of the Gore presidential campaign.
Dr. James A. Duke, Director of Pharmacognosy for Phytecs, a world renowned ethnobotanist and expert on medicinal plants. Dr. Duke spent a 32-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture as an economic botanist, where he served as chief of the USDA’s Medicinal Plant Laboratory, chief of USDA’s Economic Botany Laboratory, chief of its Germplasm Resources Laboratory, and developed the agency's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. Dr. Duke is the author of over thirty books and 400 articles including the standard reference CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs.
Dr. Heather Bradshaw serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Indiana University, where she directs the Bradshaw Lab of Lipid Neuroscience. Dr. Bradshaw has also collaborated with the Kinsey Institute on the research she directs into endogenous cannabinoid lipid signaling and its relation to female reproductive function. She has published over sixty journal articles and frequently lectures at universities around the world.
Dr. Jürg Gertsch is professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Dr. Gertsch has done fieldwork among the Yanomami in Venezuela and carried out research in Mexico, Sarawak and Bolivia. In 2009 he was a visiting professor at the University of Cagliari. He taught at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. Dr. Gertsch’s research focuses on molecular pharmacology of the endocannabinoid system and drug discovery. His research group works on projects related to biochemical pharmacology of lipids, bioactive natural products, immunopharmacology and neuropharmacology.
About Phytecs
Phytecs develops healthcare and nutrition products targeting the endocannabinoid system responsible for the regulation of nearly every physiologic process within the human body. Phytecs researches how the endocannabinoid system controls immunity, pain, inflammation, emotional recall, learning and memory, metabolism, appetite and weight, sleep, embryo development, neuroprotection and stress relief. Phytecs works with compounds derived from over twenty different plant genera that produce molecules that can influence lipid signaling and physiological function throughout the body. www.phytecs.com
