In this Employee Spotlight series, we chat with SōRSE employees from VPs to lab tech, to learn what drives our innovation and makes our team unique.
Today’s Employee Spotlight on Michael Flemmens, EVP of Research.
Why did you decide to join SōRSE?
Scott Riefler, Sōrse Chief Science Officer, and I had worked together at TIC Gums, and he recruited me. I had been running the R&D group at TIC and had left there to work on implantable medical devices. He called me and said he needed an industry veteran who knows emulsions and the ingredient space and can think outside the box.
What did you do before joining SōRSE?
I’m a biochemist by education, and I worked in specialty adhesives like transdermal patches and in anti-counterfeiting for a while.
I can’t go into too much detail on the latter, but we created a product with a large diameter and small thickness, like a coin. The “coins” are 35 microns in diameter and 6 microns thick, roughly a third of the diameter of a human hair, and inside it were over 20,000 color pixels. So you could print them in an edible grade and use them for pharmaceutical tablet as a coating.
Another invention I’m prouder of is a patented cancer treatment. It’s a targeted chemo device to minimize the negative effects of chemotherapy. Do you remember honeycomb cereal? So we figured out we could build this steric tension into these honeycomb shapes, and in chemotherapy, you could apply energy, which causes the honeycomb to fold in on itself and create like a little paintball full of chemo with a magnetic periphery.
If you inject these chemo balls into the patient and put the patient in an MRI, you could use the magnet to drag the chemo ball to exactly where the tumor is, heat them up using vibration, and these chemo balls would cauterize the blood vessel where the tumor was getting its nutrients and then dump the chemo on the tumor. And this is all without poisoning the rest of your body with chemo.
What about the food industry?
I’ve worked in every silo covered by the FDA, including veterinary foods and feeds, pharmaceuticals, supplements, and devices. It’s fun for me because when I talk to clients, there’s pretty much no aspect of the industry that I don’t have at least some experience with—operations, quality, regulatory, and R&D.
Also, Scott and I got a novel food ingredient approved for use in Europe and successfully went through the Joint Food and Agriculture and World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) approval process. The anti-counterfeiting products and cancer patent were both type 4 drug master file (DMF) for a non-active ingredients. That means I’ve successfully got approval after full Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scrutiny and regulatory approval.
Why cannabis?
Yeah, I wasn’t a cannabis user when I started at Sōrse, but I always look for roles where I can invent things that help improve the quality of life. For me, it’s about working for companies where I feel like I can make a difference in someone’s life.
Is there a common industry assumption you disagree with?
Not really, but I’m really tired of getting asked if CBD will get you high.
What is a skill you have that would surprise your coworkers?
I don’t think it’s a surprise to them anymore, but I do improv comedy. It helps me do a better job with customers and public speaking. There’s always some chucklehead in the audience that wants to let the whole audience know how smart he is, and he’s going to ask a question that only he can answer. So it’s a fun thing for me to do that also has translatable attributes to helping me be more successful.
If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing (apart from curing cancer)?
If I didn’t have to earn money for a living, I’d be an usher at Wrigley Field. I want to spend every day at the ballpark. I love the experience. As soon as I walk in and see the grass, I get goosebumps.
What’s the best professional advice you ever received?
I have one, but I don’t share it. It’s my secret weapon. Even my wife hasn’t figured out what it is!
But I also had a mentor who said you need to be brave enough to surround yourself with people that know things you don’t. You don’t want to be the grown adult playing kindergarteners in a game of basketball. But if you play with Michael Jordan, your game will improve.
I am a lifelong learner and perpetually curious, so that advice has served me well.
What are three things you can’t live without?
My chef knife, music, and a TV so I can watch the Cubs.
