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Dr. Daniela Vergara is an evolutionary biologist researching Cannabis genomics at the Â鶹ӰԺ. In addition to her multiple publications on Cannabis, she founded and directs a non-profit organization, the Agricultural Genomics Foundation (AGF). AGF’s aim is to make Cannabis science available to a broad public. Dr. Vergara’s latest scientific publications include the comparison of the federal Cannabis to that produced by the private market, showing that the government’s Cannabis lacked potency and variation. These results were featured in news platforms such as Science and FiveThirtyEight. Some of her other scientific publications are a compilation on the existing genomic tools available for Cannabis research, and the maternally inherited genomes (chloroplast and mitochondria). Vergara has authored these publications advised by Dr. Nolan Kane whose group at CU Â鶹ӰԺ she joined in 2013. These publications are a product of collaborations between graduate and undergraduate students, and scientists from the Cannabis Industry.

Through AGF, Vergara educates the public about science, Cannabis, evolutionary biology, and genomics. AGF also supports the Cannabis Genomic Research Initiative (CGRI), a group that Drs. Vergara and Kane founded to explore the Cannabis genome. Currently, Dr. Vergara is exploring the genes related to the production of CBD and THC, and is associating this important physical trait to the genome.