Biography
Sytze Elzinga is the Laboratory Manager at The Werc Shop. His primary focus is on Research & Development, as well as Quality Control.
Sytze received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and subsequently went on to complete his masters of science in natural product chemistry from Leiden University in The Netherlands in 2006. Sytze’s early research work involved investigations of Artemisinin and sesquiterpene precursors found in dead and green leaves of Artemisia annua L. Additional work involved investigation of the origin of licorice through the use of NMR. Following the completion of his master’s thesis Sytze moved on to Farmalyse, a pharmaceutical contract laboratory which performs the quality control and release of pharmaceutical products. Farmalyse possesses the sole contract with the Dutch government for the quality control of the medicinal cannabis provided on prescription through the pharmacies in the national medical marijuana program. At Farmalyse Sytze was responsible for the quality control of all medicinal cannabis for the Dutch pharmaceutical market.
Research at Farmalyse was conducted on the extraction and purification of THC from medicinal cannabis. These efforts lead to a spin-off company, Echo Pharmaceuticals, where Sytze was the laboratory manager and was responsible for all laboratory activities. Sytze was responsible for the, creation and validation of cannabinoid standards as well as purification of THC to be used as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for the production of a novel tablet, which is currently undergoing Phase II clinical studies.
Sytze’s experience is invaluable and simply can’t be duplicated. No other laboratory in the United States can boast such experience and expertise pertaining to the proper analysis and quality control of medicinal cannabis. While at The Werc Shop, Sytze continues to push the frontier of scientific understanding of medicinal cannabis.
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