Getting Real with 4Life’s Chief Scientific Officer David Vollmer, PhD

He takes us inside the lab for a discussion about scientific research, advisory boards and more.

SSN: What is it like to be a scientist at a corporation as opposed to being in a research or academic setting?

Primarily, we ask different questions. In the academic world, the questions are more mechanistic and hypothetical in nature. When we get into a corporate lab, questions are framed in a way to demonstrate that an ingredient or product does what it’s supposed to do. And so the questions we ask in a professional setting are really different because they’re more about application than a general academic inquiry for the purpose of answering a hypothesis.

The 4Life research and development team.

Scientists within the lab are different as well. In an academic environment, they might have backgrounds in molecular biology or nutrition. In an R&D or quality control lab, we have someone who specializes in the testing aspects of what an ingredient is and what it’s supposed to be. This researcher is charged with factors of identity, potency, purity and so forth.SSN: Describe for us what your team inside the lab does on a daily basis.