9:00 am - 10:00 am - Regenerative Cannabis Cultivation — Microbiomes, Living Soil, and Biological Resilience
How soil biology, microbial ecology, and genomic insight are reshaping sustainable cannabis production. This panel explores regenerative cultivation through a scientific lens—focusing on living soils, beneficial microbial networks, and data-driven strategies to reduce chemical inputs while improving crop resilience and consistency.

• Moderator: Kevin McKernan
• Panelists: Kimberly Gwinn, Zamir Punja, Collin Palmer, Tad Hussey

Panelists will examine how regenerative cultivation can be measured, validated, and scaled, including:

• Distinguishing pathogenic vs. beneficial microbial networks in soil and plant tissues

• Designing cultivation systems that leverage biological control and vector ecology

• Using genomics and qPCR to assess soil health, endophytes, and disease pressure

• Maintaining photoperiod stability and cultivar performance in living-soil systems

• Scaling regenerative models that prioritize nutrient cycling, microbial balance, and long-term soil vitality

11:00 am - 12:00 pm - Flowering Time, Genetics & Climate Adaptation in Cannabis
Decoding how genetics, nutrient signaling, circadian rhythms, and environmental cues govern the most pivotal trait in cannabis cultivation

Flowering time determines yield, cannabinoid expression, harvest timing, and regulatory compliance. This panel brings together leading geneticists and plant scientists to examine how genome structure, nutrient signaling, photoperiod sensing, and climate adaptation converge to control floral induction in cannabis.

• Moderator: Kevin McKernan
• Panelists: Todd Michael, George Stack, Davoud Torkamaneh, Zachary Wise

Panelists will explore how genetics, environment, and nutrient status interact to control flowering, including:

• How flowering genes and regulatory regions differ across landraces and hybrids

• The role of photoperiod and circadian signaling in floral induction timing

• Nutrient-driven transcriptional control of flowering and energy allocation

• Matching genotype to latitude, climate stress, and compliance timelines

• Breeding climate-adaptive cultivars that balance yield predictability and cannabinoid expression

2:45 pm - 3:45 pm - AI for Plant & Cannabis Biology: Decoding Hidden Genetics (Epistasis) and Designing the Next Generation of Regulatory Peptides
This talk introduces a new approach to plant genetics through the analysis of global epistatic interaction maps—revealing how genes work together in ways traditional single-gene studies miss. The concepts will be presented in an accessible way, with no deep technical background required.

The second half explores how generative AI can be used to design novel peptides capable of modulating key plant functions. This emerging toolkit holds particular promise for the cannabis research community, opening new possibilities to influence biological processes such as rooting, immune response, stress tolerance, and beyond. Together, these approaches point toward a future where AI-driven insights and molecular design accelerate discovery and innovation in cannabis science.

• Speaker: Gabriel Krouk

4:45 pm - 5:45 pm - Tissue Culture, Clonal Integrity & Regeneration Innovation
Future-proofing cannabis propagation through regeneration science, genetic fidelity, and somaclonal risk management.

As cannabis cultivation scales, tissue culture is no longer just a sanitation tool—it is a foundational technology for genetic preservation, IP protection, and yield consistency. This panel examines the biological, technical, and governance frameworks required to deploy tissue culture at industrial scale without sacrificing clonal integrity.

• Moderator: Michael Catalano
• Panelists: Michael Deyholos, Lasse Schultze, William Graham, Walter Viss, Lauren Avenius

Panelists will outline how modern tissue culture programs can be scientifically validated, economically justified, and legally defensible, including:

• Mechanisms driving somaclonal variation and how to mitigate them
  

• Hormonal and genetic controls governing regeneration fidelity
  

• Quality-control frameworks for clonal identity verification
  

• Scaling clean-stock programs without runaway cost or contamination risk
  

• Aligning tissue culture workflows with IP strategy, breeding pipelines, and enterprise operations