Research Landscape
Top Researchers
The people actually running the trials and publishing the data.
| Name | Affiliation | Location | Credentials | Papers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Matthew W. Johnson Led the first federally-funded psilocybin treatment trial in roughly 50 years and co-authored the 2016 cancer-related depression and anxiety psilocybin trial. Spent 20 years at Johns Hopkins before moving to Sheppard Pratt in 2024. | Senior Investigator, Center of Excellence for Psilocybin Research and Treatment, Sheppard Pratt Health System | Baltimore, Maryland, US | PhD | View → |
Frederick S. Barrett Principal architect of Hopkins' fMRI and neuroimaging work on psychedelics, including the 2021 randomized trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depressive disorder. | Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research | Baltimore, Maryland, US | PhD | View → |
Natalie Gukasyan Lead author on the landmark 12-month follow-up study showing durable psilocybin-assisted therapy effects for major depressive disorder, done while inaugural Medical Director of Hopkins' psychedelic center. | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center / New York State Psychiatric Institute | New York, New York, US | MD | View → |
Christopher Pittenger Directed Yale's first randomized, placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin for OCD. | Director, Yale Program for Psychedelic Science; Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine | New Haven, Connecticut, US | MD, PhD | View → |
Benjamin Kelmendi Principal Investigator on Yale's multi-site Phase 2 trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant OCD. | Co-Director, Yale Program for Psychedelic Science; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine | New Haven, Connecticut, US | MD | View → |
Michael P. Bogenschutz Senior author of the 2022 JAMA Psychiatry trial showing psilocybin-assisted therapy reduced heavy drinking days in adults with alcohol use disorder — the first large modern RCT of its kind. | Director, NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine; Professor of Psychiatry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine | New York, New York, US | MD | View → |
Robin Carhart-Harris Pioneered the fMRI studies of LSD and psilocybin underpinning the "entropic brain" hypothesis, first at Imperial College London (which he founded), then at UCSF since 2022. | Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry; Founding Director, Neuroscape Psychedelics Division, UCSF | San Francisco, California, US | PhD | View → |
Jennifer Mitchell Lead investigator on the MAPS/Lykos MDMA-assisted therapy Phase 3 trials for PTSD. | Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, UCSF; Associate Chief of Staff for Research, SF VA Medical Center | San Francisco, California, US | PhD | View → |
Boris Heifets Runs mechanistic studies testing whether ketamine's antidepressant effect requires a conscious drug experience, and leads an active Stanford trial on psilocybin under anesthesia. | Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University | Stanford, California, US | MD, PhD | View → |
Gül Dölen Discovered that MDMA reopens a critical period for social reward learning in mice (Nature, 2019), then showed the effect generalizes to other psychedelics (Nature, 2023). | Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley (Renee & U.S. Marine LCpl Bob Parsons Endowed Chair) | Berkeley, California, US | MD, PhD | View → |
David E. Olson Coined the term "psychoplastogen" and led development of non-hallucinogenic neuroplasticity-promoting compounds. Also co-founded and holds an active advisory role at Delix Therapeutics. | Founding Director, UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics; Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry/Molecular Medicine, UC Davis | Davis, California, US | PhD | View → |
Bryan Roth His lab solved the first high-resolution cryo-EM structures of psychedelics bound to the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor and invented DREADD chemogenetic receptor technology. | Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, UNC School of Medicine; Director, NIMH Psychoactive Drug Screening Program | Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US | MD, PhD | View → |
David Nutt Founded Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research, the first university center of its kind, and led early modern PET/fMRI studies of psilocybin's effects on the brain. | Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology; Director, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London | London, UK | DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci | View → |
Matthias Liechti Runs the field's leading human-pharmacology lab for controlled LSD and MDMA dosing studies, generating much of the modern dose-response and pharmacokinetic data for both compounds. | Professor and Head, Clinical Pharmacology Division, University Hospital Basel / University of Basel | Basel, Switzerland | MD | View → |
Franz X. Vollenweider Pioneered 1990s PET studies linking psilocybin and LSD effects to serotonin 2A receptor activity, laying the neurobiological foundation for the current research renaissance. | Professor Emeritus, University of Zürich; Director, Heffter Research Center Zürich | Zürich, Switzerland | MD | View → |
James Rucker Led the largest randomized trial to date of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, at King's/Maudsley. | Professor of Affective Psychopharmacology & Clinical Trials, King's College London; leads the Psychedelic Trials Group | London, UK | BSc, MBBS, MRCPsych, PhD | View → |
Rachel Yehuda Leading the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trial for combat veterans with chronic PTSD at the Bronx VA. | Director, Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | New York, New York, US | PhD | View → |
Charles Grob Led the first FDA-approved modern psilocybin trial in humans — the Harbor-UCLA pilot study of psilocybin for anxiety in advanced-stage cancer patients (2004-2008). | Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center / David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA | Torrance, California, US | MD | View → |
Gerard Sanacora Internationally recognized expert on ketamine's use in psychiatry, from the neurobiology of glutamate and GABA in mood disorders through to clinical application — one of the researchers whose work underpins Spravato's path to approval. | Director, Yale Depression Research Program; George D. Gross and Esther S. Gross Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine | New Haven, Connecticut, US | MD, PhD | View → |
Debra Kahn Leads UC Davis Health's dedicated treatment-resistant depression clinic, offering TMS and esketamine alongside medication management for patients who haven't responded to standard antidepressants. | Director, Advanced Psychiatric Therapeutics Clinic, UC Davis Health | Sacramento, California, US | MD | View → |