Dr. Andrea Small-Howard has 25+ years of scientific research and executive experience in the biopharma industry supervising research & development, manufacturing, and quality control in global divisions. Dr. Small-Howard has taken novel biological products from ideation through commercialization. She has been named an inventor on 70+ patent applications, taken the lead in obtaining regulatory approvals, and orchestrated commercial licensing deals. As President, Chief Science Officer, and Board Member at Gb Sciences, Inc., she is the architect of a strategic vision to make safe, effective, and standardized cannabinoid medicines available to patients where its use can be supported with rigorous evidence. She brings passion for advancing clinical research on plant-based compounds and has co-created a novel AI-enabled drug discovery engine and biopharmaceutical drug development program for disease-specific phytomedicines.

Dr. Small-Howard has researched cannabinoids for over 20 years, leading a project group dedicated to the study of cannabinoids in the immune system as an NIH-funded post-doctoral fellow. In this work she published one of the earliest studies of cannabinoid impacts on pro-inflammatory immunocytes. More recently she has contributed to published studies on consumer protection issues surrounding ‘medicinal’ Cannabis chemovars in Nevada, co-authored scholarly reviews on cannabinoids in heart disease and Parkinson’s Disease, mechanistic studies on cannabinoid and terpene regulation of ion channels, and an innovative study demonstrating the utility of nanoparticles as delivery vehicles for Cannabis-derived therapeutic compounds.