Liechti Lab

Liechti Lab is headed by Matthias Liechti and is located at the University of Basel. The lab researches novel psychedelic substances, MDMA, and LSD. They have signed an exclusive partnership with MindMed.

Liechti Lab

From the lab’s website:

“Our research focus is on the pharmacology of psychoactive substances in vitro and in humans. We characterize novel substances (designer drugs) in vitro and also investigate the pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics of MDMA, LSD, and amphetamines in humans including psychological tests, pharmacogenetics, and functional brain imaging. This work is linked to studies on the acute clinical problems associated with recreational drug use. In the laboratory, we mainly characterize the receptor interaction profiles of novel psychoactive substances and their cytotoxic effects.”

Collaborations

The collaboration with MindMed will give the company access to over 10 years of research that the lab has done with MDMA. This entails several clinical trials and has data on the pharmacology and safety of MDMA in the human body.

“MindMed has committed to fund future R&D of new psychedelic therapies being pursued by the Liechti Lab with the intention to create next-gen psychedelic inspired medicines that incorporate MDMA as a component of these therapies. Liechti Lab and MindMed plan to explore combination treatments of LSD and MDMA to optimize the subjective effect profiles and potentially join the benefits of both psychedelics.“

A part of the cooperation will also work to realize a ‘neutralizer technology’ that could possibly stop a ‘bad’ trip.

News

• MindMed Adds MDMA to Develop Next-Gen Psychedelic Therapies (MindMed, May 2020)
• LSD “off-switch” developed by psychedelic pharmaceutical company (New Atlas, April 2020)