About

I'm interested in the scientific study of Cannabis hemp flowers and its implications for health and society. The phenomenon of cannabinergy, an essential cell-to-cell signalling system found throughout the human body, was discovered through the integrative bioscientific study of Cannabis.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Chemistry
• Internal medicine
• Computer science
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• Ketamine assisted psychotherapy in postpartum mood and anxiety disorders: a limited case series

  Frontiers in Psychiatry · 2026-01-22

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The postpartum period is notorious for rapid and profound changes for birthing individuals and their families. Significant shifts to hormonal and physical health, routines and family roles, and the salience of personal and community risk factors all contribute to potential psychiatric and psychological distress for parents, sometimes diagnosed as a postpartum mood or anxiety disorder (PMAD). Existing pharmacologic treatment modalities for PMADs do not comprehensively address the profound shifts of the postpartum period, often inadequate at reaching peak therapeutic efficacy in a shorter time frame, in patient accessibility, or offering sustained benefit. Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP), is increasingly recognized as a therapeutic option for a range of psychiatric disorders and has been explored as a modality to prevent PMADs when used during Cesarean births. This retrospective case series examines three cases where ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) was introduced during the first two years postpartum as part of a comprehensive treatment plan for PMADs. This study describes the utility of ketamine assisted psychotherapy to the postpartum individual, and offers perspective on the impact of psychedelic insights through treatment of PMAD symptoms

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Teledontic–Telegnathic Protocol and Use of Hybrid Mandibular Advancement Devices for the Management and Treatment of Temporomandibular Joint Disorders and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

  2025-02-21

  book-chapter

  Objective To assess a novel hybrid mandibular advancement device (HMAD) as a component of the teledontic-telegnathic protocol for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJD). Methods Ninety-one individuals with OSA and TMJD's retrospective baseline and titration polysomnograms were compared after using HMAD (ApnoDent®) for 6 to 12 months. Results According to the clinical data, 95.5% of patients had their TMJD symptoms resolved (p à .00001). Ninety-one percent of individuals in the mild-moderate category and 77% of cases in the severe-very severe category had the best resolution with an AHI of less than five (p = .0001). Conclusions Another therapy option for patients with mild to extremely severe OSA and TMJD may be HMAD.

  PublisherDOI

• Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

  2025-02-21 · 1 citations

  book-chapter

  Evolutionary alterations in the human pharyngorofacial complex (POFC) and upper respiratory tract caused an anatomical disease known as sleep-related breathing disorder (SRDB), which has a more severe form, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Some of these changes include acute oral cavity-skull base angulation, pharyngeal collapse with anterior migration of the foramen magnum, shortening of the maxillary, ethmoid, palatal, and mandibular bones causing posterior migration of the tongue into the pharynx, descent of the larynx, shortening of the soft palate with loss of the epiglottic-soft palate lock-up. Although it is generally accepted that some of these modifications had advantageous selection pressures for bipedalism, the development of voice, speaking, and language eventually had a significant role, as did binocular vision and locomotion. Here, it is demonstrated that these alterations are the anatomic basis of OSA. The field of dentistry and especially orthodontics, with its enormous capability to influence the growth and development of PharyngOroFacial (POF) anatomy, creates a vital role for the profession as part of the dental/medical team in early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of SRBD and OSA. The dental field needs to engage in a paradigm shift and view POF discrepancies not only as the cause of patient's dental and facial aesthetic disharmonies but also as their impact on the development and function of their airway system. Dental and orthodontic treatment strategies should now expand to reflect an effort to impact and improve the patient's overall health positively. In this chapter, we have attempted to systematically describe the role of dentistry and orthodontics in caring for patients with SRBD, including OSA.

  PublisherDOI

• Feasibility of In-Vivo Dosimetry for Proton Therapy Using a Mobile Point-of-Care (PoC) PET Imaging System

  2025-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Many new diagnostic PET imaging agents along with their companion radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) compounds have been adopted for cancer therapy. We recently constructed a compact and mobile PET device to enable interactive PET imaging capability at point-of-care (PoC) settings to support real-time molecular imaging guidance for RPT and other treatments like radiation therapy. Despite its precise tumor targeting and minimal collateral damage, proton therapy faces challenges in achieving accurate in-vivo dosimetry, particularly in ensuring that the delivered radiation dose matches the planned dose. This study evaluates the feasibility of in-vivo dosimetry measurement using PoC-PET imaging to characterize proton beam-induced radionuclides in a subject.

  PublisherDOI

• The Comorbidities of Pediatric Sleep-Disordered Breathing

  2025-02-21

  book-chapterSenior author

  Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and its more severe form, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), is a disorder of airway obstruction with multisystem implications and associated complications. OSAS affects children from infancy to adulthood and is responsible for behavioral, cognitive, and growth impairment, as well as cardiovascular and perioperative respiratory morbidity and mortality. OSAS is commonly associated with comorbid conditions, including obesity and asthma. This chapter describes the comorbidities of SDB and OSAS. Although adenotonsillectomy has been the most used treatment option for OSAS in childhood, this chapter focuses on the efforts underway to identify medical and dental treatment options, including teledontics or nonrestrictive orthodontics.

  PublisherDOI

• A Broadband Ultrasensitive Gamma Imager (BUGI) Technology for Simultaneous PET-SPECT Imaging

  2025-11-01

  article

  Alpha-emitting radiopharmaceutical therapy (α RPT) delivers high-LET radiation to induce DNA double-strand breaks in metastatic prostate cancer. Tumor resistance may arise through PARP upregulation, making PARP-PET imaging a valuable non-invasive tool to assess DNA repair and guide personalized αRPT.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Added Sugar on Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (POSAS)

  2025-02-21

  book-chapterSenior author

  The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is increasingly evident in children and adolescents, portending a tsunami of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), leading to early mortality as this generation ages. In contrast to the systemic metabolism of glucose, the liver is the primary metabolic clearinghouse for 4 specific foodstuffs that have been associated with the development of MetS: trans-fats, branched-chain amino acids, ethanol, and fructose. These four substrates (1) are not insulin-regulated and (2) deliver metabolic intermediates to hepatic mitochondria without an appropriate "pop-off" mechanism for excess substrate, enhancing lipogenesis and ectopic adipose storage. Excessive fatty tissue deposits, especially in the upper airway, impact its patency during sleep, leading to the development of OSA. This chapter describes the consequential impact of added sugar and processed food in developing OSA in children and the role of teledontics as non-restrictive orthodontics in preventing and treating OSA in pediatric patients.

  PublisherDOI

• Development of a Portable PET System W/Real-Time Us Tracking for Interactive Point-of-Care Imaging

  2025-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This study presents an updated Point-of-Care (PoC) PET system integrated with ultrasound (US), designed to enhance diagnostic imaging and image-guided interventions in environments where conventional PET/CT systems are impractical, such as operation room or intensive care units. We constructed a prototype dual-modality PoC-PET/US system using a Kuka KR 10 R1100 sixx robotic arm, a rotation stage, eight PET detector modules, and an Atracsys stereo camera (FusionTrack250) all mounted on a trolley. It employs list-mode data acquisition and GPU-based MLEM reconstruction engine for rapid on-the-fly image processing. A Python-based control interface streamlines robotic positioning, data acquisition, event sorting, and image reconstruction, reducing overall scanning and reconstruction time by 20 %. The PET imaging capability of the system was evaluated using a fillable tumor phantom with lesion sizes from 3.3 mm to 11.4 mm and a tumor-to-background ratio of 20:1. The PET/US co-registration capability was evaluated using a silicone phantom containing <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">64</sup> to compare with conventional PET/CT. Lastly, PET images were collected for FDG and <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">64</sup> injected mice to exhibit tracer uptake. Initial results indicate that PoC-PET images closely approximate the resolution of clinical PET/CT systems. Stereo camera accuracy was validated by mounting a passive marker on the robotic arm, yielding sub-millimeter translational and sub-degree rotational error relative to ground truth. The integration of PoC-PET with free-hand US tracking marks a significant advancement in dual-modal imaging, offering flexible, high-performance bedside diagnostics that complement traditional setups; ultimately enabling real-time image guided interventions such as biopsy and ablation procedures.

  PublisherDOI

• An Automated Validation Framework for Power Management and Data Retention Logic Kits of Standard Cell Library

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-06-01

  preprintOpen access

  The development of a standard cell library involves characterization of a number of gate-level circuits at various cell-level abstractions. Verifying the behavior of these cells largely depends on the manual skills of the circuit designers. Especially challenging are the power management and data retention cells which must be checked thoroughly for voltage and power configurations in addition to their logic functionality. Also, when standard cells are extracted into various models, any inconsistencies in these models typically goes unchecked during library development. Thus, validating these cells exhaustively prior to customer delivery is highly advantageous to not only improve customer satisfaction but also to reduce design costs. We address this challenge by presenting a methodology to validate the power management and data retention cells that are used in the logical design flow of low-power chips. For a quick adoption by standard cell library design teams, the framework is fully automated and runs out-of-the-box. The proposed framework has been implemented and deployed within the Samsung Foundry ecosystem to enhance the overall quality of library design kit deliverables.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• HTA232 Review of Real-World Evidence (RWE) in Marketing Authorization Applications (MAAs) Highlight Differences in Evidentiary Standards Among Regulatory and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Bodies

  Value in Health · 2024-12-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Anu Varghese

  40 shared

• Hafsa Javed

  35 shared

• Simon Merritt

  35 shared

• Callum Donaldson

  35 shared

• John Navin

  35 shared

• Laura Jones

  33 shared

• Syed Haris Ahmed

  33 shared

• Paula Rogers

  32 shared

Education

• M.D.

  Unknown

• Ph.D.

  Unknown