UC Davis

The ability of psychedelics to treat a myriad of brain disorders has made them appealing drug targets. Many of the psychedelics known belong to a class of compounds we have deemed psychoplastogens, compounds capable of rapidly promoting structural and functional neuroplasticity. Despite the beneficial properties psychedelics hold for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, they are far from ideal drug candidates. The ability to produce hallucinations not only poses hazards to the user but also limits the use of these drugs to controlled clinical settings, hindering their widespread application. By leveraging medicinal chemistry, I was able to determine key aspects of the psychedelic scaffold that give rise to their hallucinogenic and psychoplastogenic effects. Using this knowledge, we were able to design next-generation therapeutics, based on psychedelics, that lack the hallucinogenic effects.