Published on 05/07/2023
Welcome back to our Cultivation for Compounds (CfC) consortium article series! For the July release, we contacted Bart Jansen, the commercial director of Brightlabs. Before we begin, for our new readers, the CfC is a four-year research and representation program dedicated to cannabis cultivation. This article is the fourth of this series.
Brightlabs, as the name suggests, is a contract research organisation that focuses on analysing third parties. The company has four pillars: Pharma, Cannabis, Industry, and Research (at a university). Therefore, they collaborate with the government and the Pharmaceutical industry and work closely with Wageningen University and other Research institutes. Brightlabs entered the cannabis industry in 2018 when they received a permit to start working on extracts of cannabis. Conducting impurity analysis, quickly followed by a complete set of studies on cannabis. From cannabinoids and terpenes to pesticides and microbiology testing. As for the cannabis department. Brightlabs clients are companies that hold a permit for experimental research, allowing them to work on cannabis research within the Netherlands, for instance, the CfC project.
We asked, What is the difference for Brightlabs between individual clients and a project like the CfC? Bart explained, “When working for customers, often aspects like their goals, research questions, or methods are not known to Brightlabs, we just report the numbers. Within the CfC project, we have an open understanding of the complete research. Unlike with individual research, when we are not aware of the research background. With the CfC, we are involved with every cycle and have all the information we might need. We are all part of the team, and this project is very transparent.”
“This is very important for Brightlabs, we now better understand the impact of the sample handling at the customer side on the results of the analysis. Secondly, this enables us to improve our methodology and develop new methods. To be able to do that, we need reference materials, which with CfC we have.” Bart mentioned that it was one of the first individual goals of Brightlabs and an essential reason for why they joined this consortium.
We were triggered by the statement ‘improving our methods’. We wanted to know what ‘improving’ exactly means in this case. “Indeed, the definition of improving can vary. One example is extending the number of compounds that are available from one method (looking at terpene analysis, cannabinoid analysis, etc.). Next is accuracy, e.g., how much material would you need for a reliable or representative result? This comes back to what is the spread within a sample? Those are areas where we can improve to enhance our comprehensive methodology further. Lastly, if we are talking about developing new methods, we can be developing new methods for measuring. For example, an analysis to measure the health of the plant and the influence of all the conditions around it by measuring plant sap, for instance.”
We wondered if there is some sort of collaboration with the other partners of CfC and Brightlabs. “For our internal method development, we do not look at the other team members, but we would like to help the other partners in the CfC in their research projects as well. So, if, for instance, Biobest is doing their experiments, we can help them with the analysis.”
Bart claimed and continued the conversation, “Cultivation for compounds – where I am emphasising the word compounds. That means you must analyse to visualise the results to see the impact of the changes in cultivation on the result. In this case, the laboratory serves as the eyes and ears of a project like CfC, providing valuable insights into these compounds. These are the key and end goals of this project. That is why I believe the lab is at the core of what the CfC project wants to achieve.”
Next, we asked whether Brightlabs faced any struggles during the CfC project. “Transport arrangements—even within the Netherlands—can be challenging, since cannabis remains a licensed opiate. Everyone involved must follow specific protocols, including for transportation,” they explained. “At the beginning, we took the time to make sure everyone was informed and understood their responsibilities. We actively support the team at Vertify to ensure everything is handled correctly, even though the legal responsibility for transferring and managing the products lies with the certified facility—in this case, Vertify. At Brightlabs, we bring the experience and continue to play an active role in this crucial step.”
For instance, the use of proper packaging for transport is also valuable for analysis. Therefore, we provided hard, air-tight containers to ensure the quality of the harvest is not damaged during transportation. Also important, from a legislative point of view, is to weigh the samples when they leave the cultivation facility and when they arrive at our lab. To ensure that nothing goes missing during transport. At the beginning of the CfC, it was a bit of a struggle, as everything did not go fluently regarding transportation. Nevertheless, there is another advantage of having such a long-period project, after transportation was done once or twice, everyone knew what they should be doing and how, so we are not having any struggles with it anymore.”
Concluding the interview, we asked about the decision to join the CfC consortium. The main goals Brightlabs had when deciding to join CfC were to develop their methods, marketing, and gain knowledge and experience. “CfC was always meant to be transparent research, and Brightlabs believes in it as well. We were always very transparent about our activities, so the two are aligning with their agendas and beliefs.
Moreover, we know that all the participants of the CfC are well-known companies and professionals in the industry. Cultivators have a renowned name in cannabis cultivation. So, they are a reliable partner to work with. Looking into the future, we see that the number of possible cannabis clients in the Netherlands will increase soon, therefore, we wanted to make sure we are keeping our knowledge up to date, and at the same time we wanted to show that we are the top cannabis laboratory in the Netherlands, and CfC was just the right way to achieve all these aims we had.”
* Cultivation for Compounds is partly funded by the PPS surcharge for research and innovation from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate.