Enthusiastic by nature, Gerry Berkowitz, professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, is bursting with even more excitement than usual about his latest area of research and teaching. For decades, Berkowitz has done groundbreaking work, applying molecular genetics in seeking to understand aspects of plant biology. He has now turned his attention to the cultivation of industrial hemp.
Hemp, a strain of the Cannabis plant low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the well-known cannabinoid that produces psychoactive effects, produces another cannabinoid called cannabidiol (CBD), which has no psychoactive effects but does have great potential for medical use. Berkowitz has nearly two acres of the unimpressive-looking plant growing in Storrs and a green light to do all he and his students can to unlock the potential for a pharmaceutical breakthrough.
Berkowitz’s excitement stems from the potential he sees in the plant, the interest his students can barely contain and the possibilities for additional funding and patenting of products that may help people suffering from a variety of maladies, including epilepsy.
The path to this research has been long and convoluted. For more than sixty years it was illegal to grow hemp in Connecticut. Then, in 2014, Connecticut passed a law that legalized the cultivation of hemp with less than 0.3 percent THC content. Two years earlier, in 2012, the Cannabis genome was sequenced, paving the way for scientists to gain some insight into the genes encoding every enzyme in the plant.
