SupplySide West organiser Virgo Publishing has announced the five members of a new Scientific Advisory Board that will evaluate proposals for scientific presentations at the SupplySide West show in October.
The panel includes Dr Steven Dentali, vice-president of Scientific and Technical Affairs for the American Herbal Products Association, and a highly regarded botanical scientist, Dr Annette Dickinson, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, Robin Dykhouse, director of Nutrition R&D, Access Business Group, Dr Cindy Schweitzer, senior scientist at Cognis Nutrition and Health and Jon Benninger, director of business development at Virgo Publishing.
"The advisory board combined with the additional day of sessions will raise the bar and ensure that SupplySide participants have access to the best science-based program available," said Jon Benninger.
Dr Dentali serves as a basic science reviewer of grant proposals for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH. He has also reviewed for FDA, the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and sits on the advisory boards of The Journal of the American Herbalist Guild and the American Botanical Council. Dr Dentali has recently been appointed as the first American Herbal Products Association's delegate to the United States Pharmacopeial Convention.
CRN president Dr Annette Dickinson has more than 30 years experience in the dietary supplement industry and recently published CRN's 2002 edition of The Benefits of Nutritional Supplements, a comprehensive review of the evidence demonstrating the health benefits of core nutritional supplements including multivitamins. She is responsible for analyzing and responding to new regulatory or legislative proposals as well as evaluating new scientific research relating to the safety and benefits of dietary supplements.
Robin Dykhouse of the Access Business Group oversees product design and development, plant concentrate research and development, nutrition education and clinical study programs. She has 25 years of experience in consumer product design and development, with more than15 of these in support of the Nutrilite brand of nutritional supplements and foods. Dykhouse holds three patents from her product development work and was an R&D Creativity Award finalist.
Dr Cindy Schweitzer, senior scientist at Cognis Nutrition and Health, will also take part in the group. Schweitzer works with scientists worldwide on research products supported by Cognis and is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the Chicago Nutrition Association and the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, a constituent society of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).Benninger is also an active member of many associations, including the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA), American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). He also serves on the board of directors for Citizens For Health and is vice president of the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA).
The new scientific advisory board will evaluate seminar proposals based on factors such as originality, relevance to industry, scientific merit and speaker credentials.
Supply Side West takes place in October 1-3 in Las Vegas.