- Backed by an anonymous donor, Berkeley launches a center for psychedelic science and public education
- Berkley follows examples of other notable universities such as Johns Hopkins in Maryland, Imperial College in London, and Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science
- As an innovative company focusing on psilocybin, CYBIN is set to capitalize on growing academic, commercial attention
UC Berkeley is joining other prominent academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and Imperial College in London, to accelerate the scientific research of psilocybin by launching a new center focusing on the compound (https://ibn.fm/CL4wX). As a mushroom life science company that expects to launch psilocybin-based products in jurisdictions where the substance is not prohibited, CYBIN Corp. will benefit from the growing research interest in psilocybin, bringing the compound to the mainstream.
Five decades after a government ban on psychedelic research, UC Berkeley is opening its doors again to psychedelic science and public education. Supported by $1.25 million in seed funding from an anonymous donor, the prestigious university has announced the launch of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. The center aims to conduct research using psychedelics to explore cognition, perception, and emotion and their biological bases in the human brain. The center will also create a program to educate the public about the once-controversial and now rapidly advancing psychedelics research.
“There’s never been a better time to start a center like this. The renewal of basic and clinical science with psychedelics has catalyzed interest among many people,” said UC Berkeley neuroscientist David Presti, who is also one of the center’s co-founders.
Presti has teamed up with other co-founders to conduct studies and explore the potential of psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds. Their research will examine the effectiveness of treating highly prevalent mental disorders including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Initial experimental studies will use psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in “magic” mushrooms.
“Some of these studies have produced striking results in cases that are otherwise resistant to more conventional medical treatment. This suggests that psychedelic compounds may offer new hope for people suffering from these disorders,” said UC Berkeley neuroscientist Michael Silver, who also serves as an inaugural director of the newly launched Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Likewise, Rotem Petranker, co-founder and director of the Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science,is a clinical psychology PhD student with John Eastwood’s lab at York University (https://ibn.fm/be28y). His main research interests are sustained attention, emotional regulation and creativity, all of which are ostensibly affected by psychedelics. Petranker is passionate about establishing a rigorous framework for the study of psychedelics using open science principles. His clinical interests include disorders amenable to psychedelic psychotherapy, including mood disorders and OCD.
Pretranker’s partner, co-founder and director Thomas Anderson, is a PhD candidate studying cognitive neuroscience at the University of Toronto in Canada. Anderson is a strong proponent of open science and publicly communicating scientific findings.
Dedicated to supporting clinical studies across North America and other regions through strategic academic and institutional partnerships, including the Canadian Centre for Psychedelic Science, CYBIN Corp. is poised to benefit from the increasing research interest in psilocybin. As an early entrant into a rapidly growing field, CYBIN seems well positioned to leverage the growing recognition of psychedelic research leading to eventual public acceptance with the potential to propel the whole industry to the new level.
CYBIN is an innovator in the stagnant pharmaceutical market, where it aims to become the first life science company to bring psiloybin medicine targeting major depressive disorder to market (https://ibn.fm/Y48W6).
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Cybin.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CYBIN are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/Cybin
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