College of Natural Sciences alumna Leslie Buttorff (B.S., ’79) has been selling products derived from cannabidiol, or CBD, through her Golden-based company Panacea Life Sciences since 2017. Now she’s partnering with Colorado State University scientists to see how else the hemp plant can benefit human and pet health and beyond.

Thanks to a $1.5 million gift from Buttorff, in October 2021 CSU opened the Panacea Life Sciences Cannabinoid Research Center, housed in the Chemistry Building. The unique center boasts state-of-the-art chemical separation and analysis instrumentation to enable foundational research in the chemistry of cannabinoids. It will serve as a springboard for CSU-based research, new and ongoing, that’s focused not just on CBD, but cannabinoids in general.