Show notes
Roberto Paleco joined us in our “virtual land” to discuss his amazing journey and career as a Medical Researcher/Scientist, Entrepreneur, from Australia, Italian born. He started a company to do research and clinical trials "for hire" to bridge the gap in the Australian medical cannabis industry. Roberto has a passion for nature and chemistry. After years of studying and working in the field as a medical researcher, Roberto decided to work on medical cannabis research entirely, which led him to create ResearchCan. He has a passion for natural medicine, mind-body connection, and chemistry of the body, which made him study different diseases and therapies. He understands that there are people who are suffering and dying that could be helped in different, but simple, ways than the pharma norm.
Roberto mentions the gastrointestinal microbiome. It's something that I just learned about in probably the last five or six years. As someone who was on a bunch of pharmaceuticals, the impact on the gastrointestinal system was significant. And the mind-body connection, I think that's something that while it's taught, it's becoming more prevalent. People are understanding the microbiome and the gut that connects gut/brain connection.
He developed ResearchCan to make a difference. He mentions it was a hard decision to step out and expose his research, but he also acknowledges that he needs to show the public what he is discovering. Roberto stated that, “We understood the necessity of providing medical cannabis industries with the technology to develop products using pharmaceutical enhancement and medical devices.”
Roberto has an extensive and interesting journey in this field. He explained:
“My passion for natural medicine started during my university studies, where I had obtained the medical and pharmaceutical knowledge to create drugs and the understanding of drug interaction with the human body. As a scientist, I always found the chemistry of the body and the pharmaceutical technologies fascinating. In my career, I studied different diseases and therapies to have a bigger vision of medical treatments. I studied topic formulation to treat skin cancer in Ireland. I moved to Sydney to become an expert on inhalation and nasal administration for respiratory conditions. I have participated in a clinical trial in collaboration with UTS, where I remained fascinated by the connection mind-body studying gastrointestinal conditions. In all of these apparently unrelated conditions and others in my advice, medical cannabis can be used as primary therapy or as a combination to help unavailable and sometimes inefficient conventional treatments.”
“I’ve been aware of the potential of medical cannabis for a long time, and I always tried in my career in Academia to make people understand it. However, nowadays, the barrier is still strong. In the years, I saw people suffering and even die from pathologies that could be treated with this plant. Finally, the world looks like realigning about the use of medical cannabis and I hope one day Australia will lead to this change.”
“My personal experience is that the Academia here is not ready for this change and my advice is that medical cannabis companies should invest money in research and developing medical products privately and directly as pharmaceutical companies always did. Australian universities have incredible laboratories and scientists, but at the moment, there are not sufficient government grants to develop cannabis research within the University, and the old bureaucracy around the intellectual property is discouraging the cannabis industry to invest in research. Besides this limitation, there is here in Australia, a market and a business interest in terms of investment and capability. Government legislation around cannabis prohibition is fast-changing, so I think that with a different approach, we can make the difference.”
Roberto mentions the gastrointestinal microbiome. It's something that I just learned about in probably the last five or six years. As someone who was on a bunch of pharmaceuticals, the impact on the gastrointestinal system was significant. And the mind-body connection, I think that's something that while it's taught, it's becoming more prevalent. People are understanding the microbiome and the gut that connects gut/brain connection.
He developed ResearchCan to make a difference. He mentions it was a hard decision to step out and expose his research, but he also acknowledges that he needs to show the public what he is discovering. Roberto stated that, “We understood the necessity of providing medical cannabis industries with the technology to develop products using pharmaceutical enhancement and medical devices.”
Roberto has an extensive and interesting journey in this field. He explained:
“My passion for natural medicine started during my university studies, where I had obtained the medical and pharmaceutical knowledge to create drugs and the understanding of drug interaction with the human body. As a scientist, I always found the chemistry of the body and the pharmaceutical technologies fascinating. In my career, I studied different diseases and therapies to have a bigger vision of medical treatments. I studied topic formulation to treat skin cancer in Ireland. I moved to Sydney to become an expert on inhalation and nasal administration for respiratory conditions. I have participated in a clinical trial in collaboration with UTS, where I remained fascinated by the connection mind-body studying gastrointestinal conditions. In all of these apparently unrelated conditions and others in my advice, medical cannabis can be used as primary therapy or as a combination to help unavailable and sometimes inefficient conventional treatments.”
“I’ve been aware of the potential of medical cannabis for a long time, and I always tried in my career in Academia to make people understand it. However, nowadays, the barrier is still strong. In the years, I saw people suffering and even die from pathologies that could be treated with this plant. Finally, the world looks like realigning about the use of medical cannabis and I hope one day Australia will lead to this change.”
“My personal experience is that the Academia here is not ready for this change and my advice is that medical cannabis companies should invest money in research and developing medical products privately and directly as pharmaceutical companies always did. Australian universities have incredible laboratories and scientists, but at the moment, there are not sufficient government grants to develop cannabis research within the University, and the old bureaucracy around the intellectual property is discouraging the cannabis industry to invest in research. Besides this limitation, there is here in Australia, a market and a business interest in terms of investment and capability. Government legislation around cannabis prohibition is fast-changing, so I think that with a different approach, we can make the difference.”
