In 2012, he was at a crossroads most scientists would envy. After a postdoctoral position in small molecule chemistry at Stanford, following earlier military service as a Chinese interpreter for the U.S. Navy, the typical next step was a pharmaceutical career or a tenure track. He saw a third option nobody was taking seriously yet.
What drew him was the intersection of chemistry and biology, specifically, how molecular structure shapes the way a compound interacts with the human body. Cannabis was the rare plant where rigorous chemistry had not yet met real clinical application. He spent a summer in Mendocino County on a medical cannabis farm, studying the plant firsthand, at a moment when almost no serious science was being applied to it.
The compounds were real. The effects people wanted, better sleep, less pain, genuine calm, were achievable. But inconsistent inputs, inadequate delivery methods, and uncontrolled formulations meant most people never got there reliably. Chris saw a direct path from the science he already knew to the outcomes the industry kept promising but could not deliver.
His thesis was precise: targeted, reproducible effects could be engineered through specific ratios of acidic cannabinoids, neutral cannabinoids, and non-enzymatic degradative byproducts, ratios inaccessible from the plant alone. Build the science right and you could design outcomes rather than hope for them.
Testing that thesis required a delivery system capable of producing a known, stable dose every time. That engineering work became U.S. Patent No. 12,076,442 B1, LEVEL's controlled-release tablet technology. The patent was the infrastructure for the science, not the end of it.
The science itself has continued. LEVEL completed an IRB-approved, randomized, placebo-controlled trial on cannabigerol in U.S. military veterans, published in Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids in 2026. When the primary sleep outcomes did not reach statistical significance, Chris published the null result without revision. In a category built on overclaiming, that decision speaks for itself.
LEVEL has also collaborated with academic researchers outside its own walls. A 12-week chronic pain study conducted with the University of Michigan and MoreBetter, led by Principal Investigator Daniel Kruger, PhD, examined cannabinoid formulation and dosing efficacy in patients with fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Results are currently under peer review. A separate 29-day observational study with MoreBetter across 157 participants found that consistent Sleep Protab users were 227% more likely to wake refreshed and reported an average of 41 additional minutes of sleep per night.
Every article on this site carries his byline. Every formulation reflects his standard.
