Cannabis Biotechnology: What's Next, From Lab-Grown Clones to Gene-Edited Strains

Cannabis biotechnology has a big future, especially in medicine: labs across the Americas are using tissue culture, high-precision chemical testing and gene editing like CRISPR to build evidence-backed cannabis medicines and new strains with specific cannabinoid profiles. Argentina is a good example, with a state-backed cannabis oil operation in the province of Misiones and startups editing cannabis genes in the lab. Regulators are slowly catching up, and when this piece was first written the field was also waiting on a key review of cannabis by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The real question is how biotech and cannabis can work together to develop genetics with all the benefits and quality growers are looking for. So here's a look at how each field can push the other forward.

What is biotechnology?

Biotechnology is a set of techniques that use living cells, tissue cultures or molecules taken from organisms, like enzymes, to make or modify products, improve plants or animals, or develop microorganisms for specific uses.

These technologies are tied to living organisms and biological processes, like fermenting specific products, putting enzymes to work and producing recombinant proteins. Biotech builds on our understanding of core biological processes, from molecular biology to genetics, and provides tools for sustainable development in farming, fishing, forestry and the food industry.

When it's properly combined with other technologies for producing food, farm products and services, biotechnology becomes a major tool for meeting the needs of a growing population.

How is biotechnology changing cannabis quality and potency?

The Misiones case

The northeastern Argentine province of Misiones is establishing itself as a leader in producing medical cannabis oil, thanks to a string of milestones that guarantee strong traceability for its product.

The province is known for its cutting-edge infrastructure and equipment, running ongoing studies as it scales up cultivation. The state-run Biofábrica currently grows more than 10 hectares (about 25 acres) outdoors and a similar area in a controlled indoor setup. In December 2022, it began delivering the first samples of oil intended to treat specific conditions.

How is traditional biotechnology used to improve Cannabis sativa?

The partnership between the Misiones provincial government, Biofábrica and MisioPharma is moving ahead steadily to make the province a leader in cannabis oil production. So much so that it recently brought in a piece of Argentine technology that was the first of its kind in the region to control the quality of the medical product. It's a chromatograph, a lab instrument that ensures the cannabis oil is produced under top-tier quality standards and controls.

Samira Almirón, a chemical engineer on MisioPharma's team of young professionals, explained: "It's the latest in technology. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, it identifies the components in everything from the raw material to the final product (the oil), and it also tells us the concentration of both the intermediate and the finished product."

Cálice Biotech: working to improve cannabis genetics

As you'd expect from Argentina's industry, one standout here is a startup founded by two biotechnologists who graduated from UNSAM (the National University of San Martín), Ramiro Olivera and Esteban Hernando, together with Alejandro Germe, an economist who specializes in startup finance and organizational strategy.

Olivera came up with the idea back in 2017, when Argentina's legal framework for growing cannabis was still restrictive. In 2019, Hernando joined as a tech development advisor. Cálice Biotech was founded in May 2021, and in February 2022 it got approval from Argentina's Ministry of Health to operate out of UNSAM's School of Science and Technology (ECyT).

Cálice bills itself as a plant biotech platform focused on cannabis breeding, with a business model built around providing solutions to companies and seed banks in Argentina and worldwide.

On the medical side, they're working on new cannabis strains for treating conditions where conventional drugs fall short. They're also exploring developments for industrial use and horticulture. The partners have secured funding from local investors and are in talks with a foreign one.

What's happening with cannabis genetics in Argentina?

The global cannabis market is growing fast: at the time of writing, projections put it at US$42.7 billion for 2024. In Argentina, the Ministry of Economy's Production Secretariat estimates the sector will hit US$500 million in annual sales and create 10,000 jobs by 2025.

The legal 0.3% THC limit for Cannabis sativa plants puts restrictions on growing for industrial use. Cálice says it has knocked out the gene that makes the plant produce THC using lab-scale genetic engineering, putting it among the first in the world to pull that off.

Developing new cannabis strains also takes bioinformatics, phenomics and tissue culture. Phenomics studies how a crop behaves by measuring a range of parameters, while tissue culture, through micropropagation, is essential for applying gene editing and doubles as a way to produce clean, sterile plants.

Micropropagation is an advanced cloning technique that grows new plants from tiny fragments of plant tissue using growth regulators and special growing media.

Argentina and transgenics: the older school of biotech

At the time of writing, there was only one cannabis variety of this kind on the market: a transgenic strain developed in the United States. Transgenesis means inserting outside genes into a plant's genome to give it traits it didn't have before.

Because that creates a new organism that couldn't have come about naturally, the regulatory trials needed to bring it to market are exhaustive, taking 15 to 20 years and more than US$50 million in investment.

Transgenesis is an older technique than CRISPR, the precision "molecular scissors" that cut development time and regulatory costs because they don't leave foreign DNA behind in the edited organism's genome.

But to knock out a specific gene, beyond using CRISPR, you need to know which gene to edit. In cannabis, there are roughly 40,000 candidates. That's where the multidisciplinary approach of Cálice and similar companies really matters.