Radicle Science: Validating Natural Medicines for the First Time

Friends, as many of you know, after serving three years as the Founder and Executive Director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, I concluded my work on campus last summer. What you don’t know is I’ve been working in stealth with my cofounder Pelin Thorogood on a bold, new health tech company we are ready to unveil today: Radicle Science! Please follow us on the Radicle Science LinkedIn page where we’ll share updates on all our projects and research findings. And at the end of this article are 2 ways you can immediately help us on our audacious mission!

But first, I must say I am so proud of what our team has achieved at UCLA and the mission continues under the stellar leadership of Dr. Ziva Cooper and the membership of dozens of UCLA faculty. However, despite cannabis and CBD being used by over 20% of Americans, federal regulations and institutional bureaucracy handcuff this urgently needed research - whether at UCLA or other research institutions - as scientists are barred from studying ANY of the thousands of over-the-counter CBD and cannabis products sold in the US.    

The Origin of Radicle Science

My life’s mission has always been to heal. When I became a physician, I was dismayed at the focus on using pharmaceuticals to manage symptoms, instead of leveraging lifestyle, diet, and complementary medicines to treat the root cause of disease. Thus it became my mission to disrupt healthcare’s pharmacopoeia status quo. Imagine what our world would look like if we had comprehensive knowledge of the health effects of every plant. It would be a world of trusted, widely used, democratized, natural medicines for ALL future generations! Plant compounds are difficult to patent or monopolize because they are naturally occurring, and that’s exactly why they’ve been ignored and poorly researched. It’s time for healthcare to turn over a new leaf.   

I branched out from UCLA in order to dramatically accelerate my original mission. I knew if we could avoid federal funding restrictions, bypass institutional bureaucracy, eliminate all physical infrastructure, use cutting-edge technology to accurately capture health data while automating a vast majority of personnel, and skip intermediaries to go direct-to-consumer, we could plummet the cost and time of clinical research by at least 10x and unlock comprehensive knowledge on natural medicines for the first time.  

What is Radicle Science?

Radicle Science is a transformative healthtech B-corp dedicated to validating natural medicines for the first time in history. Our proprietary approach, powered by a virtual, crowdsourced, direct-to-consumer (D2C) research model, delivers objective health outcome data across diverse populations and health conditions at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional clinical trials. Our Research Offerings are currently available only to CBD brands, given the lack of any rigorous efficacy studies in spite of rapid market growth and tens of millions of users.  But soon we will open our offerings to cannabis brands and eventually other natural medicine categories. You can learn more about Radicle and the incredible team we’ve assembled on our website.

Two Ways You Can Help

1) Our first studies are already underway, and we are quickly filling out the remainder of our study calendar for 2021. If you have connections to well established, high-quality, leading American CBD brands who may benefit from our transformative studies, please have them email [email protected].   

2) We are growing quickly and seeking Radicle Rebels who are passionate about our audacious mission, will thrive in our fast-paced startup environment, and are comfortable breaking away from tradition to join the Rebellion! Please have candidates send their resume to [email protected]. We are seeking:

Chief Science Officer (part time starting now, transition to full time in Q3)

• Oversees the design and execution of a high volume of rigorous, virtual, D2C clinical studies on natural medicines. Works closely with the Chief Data Officer to ensure studies offer actionable business and health insights for sponsoring brands, study participants, and the public at large.  
• Required: A creative mindset to reimagine clinical trial rigor in a digital, D2C, crowdsourced setting; PhD or MD or equivalent; experience as Principal Investigator in clinical research.  

Clinical Project Manager (full time starting now)

• Lead planning and execution of Radicle’s digital, direct-to-consumer research studies 
• Required: Experience with day to day management of clinical trials, consumer health research, or post-marketing research; ability to multi-task and work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders; comfortable learning new technologies. 

Communications Strategy Consultant (or PR firm, starting now)

• Lead creation of a new category carved out from the broader healthtech industry and defined by Radicle Science. Develop and execute the strategic launch plan for Radicle; drive awareness generation efforts to establish Radicle as the indisputable category leader.
• Required: Bold and audacious approach, relevant traditional and new media connections, excellent content creation and communication capabilities, marketing prowess and a successful track record of new category creation

Grateful for my Community Past, Present, and Future

It takes a village to raise a child, and I want to thank my community, without whom I would not be here today. As we embark now upon this revolutionary journey, your help will be invaluable to achieving the Radicle mission. I am ever grateful for your support in redefining medicine for our generation, our children, and many to come. 

It's time to get Radicle!