Home / Research
Foundation research
From plant knowledge to a defensible drug development pathway.
United for Hope, Advancing Cures
Our framing is deliberate and sequential. Each stage disciplines the next, so that traditional botanical knowledge is carried forward as rigorous, regulatable science rather than unsupported claim.
KF-ECS-2025
Endocannabinoid System Deficiency: A Comprehensive Study of General, Clinical, and Medically Authorized Adult and Pediatric Populations.
The protocol received approval in September 2024. Its materials include informed-consent documents in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, with language access built into the research design.
The remaining structural step before the next submission is independent IRB reconstitution. The Foundation is not announcing current approval, enrollment, recruitment, intervention, participant availability, or results.
FWA00034558 is the Foundation's federal-wide assurance with the Office for Human Research Protections. IORG0012116 is its registered Institutional Review Board organization number.
The scientific pathway
Pharmacognosy is the starting point, not the end of the claim.
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The Foundation begins there, advances potential candidates through botanical drug discovery, and uses the FDA Botanical Drug Development pathway as the governing regulatory framework.
The work joins traditional plant knowledge to a research and regulatory process capable of producing evidence that can be examined, challenged, and carried forward.
The Foundation conducts and supports research. It does not provide medical advice, and nothing on this site is a treatment recommendation.
Research leadership
The people responsible for the work.
The research team combines botanical medicine, population health, clinical medicine, and independent review.
Dr. Lakisha Jenkins-Samuels, Ph.D., RH (AHG)
Traditional Naturopath and Clinical Herbalist with more than two decades in botanical medicine, systems-based health, and health equity.
Foundation profile LinkedIn profile
Dr. Denise C. Vidot, Ph.D.
Serves on the KF-ECS-2025 investigator team as Co-Principal Investigator.
LinkedIn profile
Dr. Maurice D. Hinson, MD
Serves as clinical Co-Investigator and monitor for KF-ECS-2025.
LinkedIn profileInstitutional Oversight
The Foundation's governance work separates investigators from a non-conflicted board so the protocol can receive the required independent convened review.
Public service awareness
Move the Research Forward
See how childhood cancer awareness connects to the Foundation's research mission and the whole experience of children and families.
Support Kiona Foundation's charitable work.
Donations support Kiona Foundation's approved charitable work and its September childhood cancer awareness activities.