Joseph M. Betz, Ph.D., joined the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) as director of the newly
formed Dietary Supplements Methods and Reference Materials Program. In this role, he
oversees efforts to enhance and stimulate research and training in fields relevant to dietary
supplements at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to promote development of validated
analytical methods and reference materials for use by industry, regulatory agencies, and clinical
researchers. Prior to this, he was vice president for scientific and technical affairs at the
American Herbal Products Association and a research chemist at the Food and Drug
Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. His research interests are
toxic natural products, plant-derived foods that may prevent chronic disease, and analytical
methods for determination of botanical quality. He has been a principal investigator in the
National Cancer Institute’s Designer Foods program as well as project manager for FDA’s Plant
Toxins and Chemical, Biological, and Toxicological Characterization of Food Plants research
programs. Dr. Betz has more than 30 publications on plant toxins and analytical methods for
determination of bioactive constituents of botanical dietary supplements. He continues to work
toward ensuring the quality and safety of botanical products. He received his Ph.D. in
pharmacognosy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (now the University of
the Sciences in Philadelphia)
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