Alvin Berger, CEO, SciaDonics Inc
Dr. Berger’s interest in cannabinoids started in 1996, when he read a Nature paper describing how chocolate contained endocannabinoids that accounted for chocolate and cocoas’ rewarding properties.
In that Nature paper (di Tomaso et al, Nature 382: 677, 1996), upsetting to Dr. Berger was the contention that a molecule known as anandamide (The Sanskrit word “Ananda” means joy, bliss, and delight.) was specifically responsible for the aforementioned rewarding properties.
Anandamide is technically known as N-arachidonylethanolamine, meaning it contains the molecule arachidonic acid as a constituent. But since arachidonic is not found in modern plants like cocoa (only in ferns), short of contamination (a stretch), the Nature paper had it wrong.
During this time, Dr. Berger worked for Nestle in Lausanne Switzerland, and Nestle was keen to understand more about the molecular mechanisms responsible for chocolate’s addictive properties as you can imagine.
So, Dr. Berger, along with famous cannabinoid researchers Vincenzo Di Marzo (of Naples Italy), and Raphael Mechoulam (Hebrew University and discoverer of THC and endocannabinoids) showed that chocolate logically did not contain anandamide (Di Marzo et al., Nature 396: 636. 1998).
Dr. Berger then went on to published how high levels of orally administered endocannabinoids, could actually make an animal “high”; and his group reported on the levels of cannabinoids in many foods including breast milk.
Dr. Berger then had the idea that since fatty acids are precursors of endocannabinoids, it could be that feeding arachidonic acid, EPA, and DHA (and other fatty acids) to mammals would result in higher levels of the corresponding endocannabinoids; and this in turn, could explain some of the biological properties of the fatty acids. This pioneering work was published in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (Berger et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 6402, 2001), and this landmark work has since opened up an entire new area of scientific discovery and inquiry. As a follow up, Dr. Berger showed using receptor antagonists, that indeed some of the biological actions of fatty acids are due to binding to cannabinoid receptors. This work is not only important for enhancing our basic understanding, but has implications for the development of individualized nutrition and pharmaceutical approaches.
With the resurgence of interest in cannabinoids and hemp, Dr. Berger is keen to insert himself back in the foray of cannabinoid research and product development. He holds patents related to the use of his Delta-5 anti-inflammatory fatty acids with endocannabinoids and phytocannabinoids (SciaEssentials.com and SciaDonics.com businesses); and will leverage his background to develop cannabinoid products with the scientific rigor he is accustomed to. Via his company LifeSense Products, they sell a “CBD Solubilizer” product to help solubilize CBDs and phytocannabinoids, based on medium chain triglyceride technology.
alvinberger@q.com
alvinberger@lifesenseproducts.com
https://lifesenseproducts.com/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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