A coded-gate and long, curved driveway lead to a collection of white shipping containers, several fashioned in a row on the property.

Dillon Dabelgott, the senior manager of cultivation, shows off one of the areas he oversees: A climate controlled pod where medical marijuana is grown. It would be full of cannabis plants, but the latest crops were harvested in the weeks prior. Instead, the container sits mostly empty, with supply outpacing current demand.

Large white buckets of dried cannabis sit in a row on a metal table, each a different strain with names like Black Triangle Kush. They all have their unique differences, from look and smell to their cannabinoid makeup.

New research on using controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to grow plants with medicinal properties could lead to production methods that will increase one anti-cancer compound naturally produced by certain species of plants.

The study, led by doctoral student Rebekah Maynard, was designed to identify crops to be used in medical treatments and to develop strategies to increase the concentration of an anti-cancer compound produced by the plants.

Working with Rhuanito Ferrarezi, associate professor of CEA crop physiology, Maynard grew compact crops with a short life cycle—chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum)—in a vertical farming environment. The researchers measured the plants' production of apigenin, a natural anti-inflammatory compound with promising anti-cancer effects.