Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics

Neuroplasticity is seen at the cellular level, at the level of neurons, all the way up to changes in networks of brain regions underlying behavior.

Some of the factors that help make the brain more receptive to change are in lesser supply in patients suffering from depression and suicidal ideation. This reduces their brain’s capacity to change and adapt to the environment. For our patients with treatment resistance, this problem is magnified.

The key to solving the biggest challenge in mental healthcare is to increase the brain’s capacity for change, to promote healing and eventually wellness.

Using patient-specific stem cell-derived organoids, his group explores the effects of psychedelic compounds to help identify cellular and molecular markers of treatment response to advance the discovery of next generation therapeutics targeting brain plasticity and health.

Led by Bruce Rosen, MD, PhD, a pioneer in the development and application of functional MRI techniques, the imaging capabilities and scientific team at the Martinos Center is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

At the level of brain regions, circuitry and networks, Drs. Ghaznavi and Rosen will work in close concert to bring together the latest in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging to study how changes in the brain brought about by psychedelics relate to changes in the way people think, feel and function.

As a professor of botany at Harvard, he inspired and trained a generation of scientists to document and protect indigenous cultures, as well as champion the preservation of environmentally sensitive places like the Amazon Rainforest where much of his fieldwork was completed. Schultes’s innumerable ethnobotanical discoveries, starting in the late 1930s and throughout his career, helped lay the foundation for the field of psychedelic research. He curated observations of the human uses and properties of approximately 100 psychoactive plants and fungi, many of which have been poorly or not studied at all.

We envision the knowledge generated from pursuing research of these natural products will benefit researchers, clinicians, patients and policymakers, and the molecules discovered may give rise to new therapeutic psychedelics with potential for fast-tracking based on evidence from previous human use. The molecular and cellular targets of these identified molecules may also support the development of synthetic drugs with improved properties through traditional pharmaceutical development routes.

Dr. Rosenbaum, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, chaired the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Department for 20 years, leading 600 clinicians and researchers, and 150 trainees. The Psychiatry Department was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as #1 in the United States in 2019 and for 20 of the prior 24 years, with 60 specialty clinical and research programs and over 70 million dollars in annual research spending. At Mass General, he served as Chair of the Executive Committee on Research.He was the 2007 recipient of the C. Charles Burlingame Award for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research and education and the 2016 recipient of the Joseph B. Martin Dean's Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty for Harvard Medical School. He is Emeritus Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). In 2018, he was an Ellis Island Medal of Honor awardee. He was President/Board Chair of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) and served as President and is a Board member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He served a six-year term as Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and was Trustee of the Partners Healthcare System. He is co-Chair of Development at Mass General.

He’s co-authored more than 400 original articles and reviews and edited 20 books. He led longitudinal studies of children at risk for anxiety disorders and depression, which examined behavioral differences, risk factors, longitudinal outcomes, treatment, genetics and brain structure and function of children of parents with mood and anxiety disorders.

He is currently the director of the Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics to understand how psychedelics change the brain and to explore novel mechanisms for treatment of psychiatric disorders. He co-founded Psy Therapeutics to advance the discovery of novel drugs for psychiatric and neurologic disorders and is co-founder of Sensorium Therapeutics, Inc. to explore plant derived molecules as leads for novel psychiatric therapeutics.

Dr. Rosenbaum received his undergraduate degree from Yale College in 1969 and his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine in 1973. He completed his residency and fellowship in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Sharmin Ghaznavi, MD, PhD, is associate director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics and the Center’s director of cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Ghaznavi also serves as a psychiatrist at the Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include the neural correlates of rumination, self-related processing and other cognitive processes underlying mental illness. She has also been leading an initiative within the Department of Psychiatry to research rumination as a transdiagnostic phenomenon.

Dr. Ghaznavi has been the recipient of the Dupont-Warren and Livingston psychiatric research fellowships from Harvard Medical School, as well a 2012 NARSAD Young Investigator Award and a competitive loan repayment award from the National Institutes of Health. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry and Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders. 

Dr. Ghaznavi received her undergraduate degrees in biology, brain and cognitive sciences, and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She obtained her medical degree and PhD in neuroscience from Yale University and completed a residency in adult psychiatry at the Mass General/McLean Psychiatry Residency Program. As a resident, Dr. Ghaznavi received the Thomas P. Hackett award for academic and research excellence and the Joyce Tedlow Award from the mood and anxiety disorders board for efforts to integrate psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and research.

Bruce R. Rosen, MD, PhD, is director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Mass General and the Laurence Lamson Robbins Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the vice chair of research in the Department of Radiology at Mass General.

Dr. Rosen has received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to biomedical imaging, including the Outstanding Researcher award from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Rigshospitalet’s International KFJ Prize from the University of Copenhagen/Rigshospitalet. He is a fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM); a Gold Medal winner from ISMRM for his contributions to the field of functional neuroimaging; a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Among his many achievements in the biomedical sciences, Dr. Rosen is a pioneer in the field of functional neuroimaging. In the early 1990s, he oversaw development of the technique functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures the hemodynamic and metabolic changes associated with brain activity in both health and disease. More recently, his work has focused on the integration of fMRI data with information from other imaging modalities, including positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and noninvasive optical imaging. Many of the tools he has introduced are now used by research centers and hospitals around the world to study and evaluate patients with stroke, brain tumors, dementia and neurologic and psychological disorders.

Dr. Rosen received his MD degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, his PhD degree from MIT in 1984 and subsequently completed an internship and residency at Mass General and research fellowships at Mass General and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

Stephen J. Haggarty, PhD is Scientific Director, Chemical Neurobiology at the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics and Director of the Chemical Neurobiology Laboratory within the Center for Genomic Medicine at Mass General. Dr. Haggarty is also Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and has appointments at the Broad Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. In 2017, Dr. Haggarty was named the Stuart & Suzanne Steele Research Scholar within the Mass General Research Institute.

Dr. Haggarty’s research program operates at the interface of chemical biology and molecular therapeutics with a focus on dissecting the role of neuroplasticity in health and disease. A major emphasis of his work is the use of reprogramming technology to create patient- specific, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as powerful new models for the study of neuroplasticity; understanding the neurobiology of human disease; and addressing the challenge of discovering novel targets and next-generation, disease-modifying therapies for brain health using the principles of precision medicine. Dr. Haggarty completed his PhD in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and post-doctoral training at the Broad Institute.

Dr. Hooker is currently Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007. Dr. Hooker then completed two fellowships—a Goldhaber Distinguished Fellowship and a Ruth Kirschstein Fellowship—at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he maintained an appointment as an Associate Scientist through 2013.

In 2009, Dr. Hooker moved to Boston to join the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. There he co-founded a first-in-class imaging facility that merges functional MRI and positron emission tomography for neurochemical study of the human brain. Dr. Hooker holds associate or affiliate appointments at the Broad Institute, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an active consultant and advisor to the pharmaceutical industry in neurotherapeutics; he currently serves as a scientific advisory board member for, among others, Psy Therapeutics, Delix Therapeutics, and Fuzionaire Diagnostics. In 2017, he co-founded Eikonizo Therapeutics which leverages molecular imaging to de-risk drug discovery in the pursuit of disease-modifying therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Hooker serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Dr. Hooker’s research program focuses on advancing our understanding of the brain through the development and application of molecular imaging agents. His lab has provided insights into biochemical dysregulation of neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in the areas of neuroinflammation, epigenetics and neurochemical dynamics. The program has wide a scope including fundamental radiochemistry methodology, medicinal chemistry, radiotracer development, and preclinical and human magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography imaging. Additional information on Dr. Hooker and his research can be found on the Martinos Center Chemical Neuroscience Program website.

Franklin King IV, MD, is the director of training and education at the Mass General Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. His primary clinical and research interest is in the utilization of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat a variety of chronic psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety disorders, and in strategies to optimize these interventions for different patient populations. In addition, Dr. King teaches and supervises residents and fellows at Mass General, and practices clinically as a staff psychiatrist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders as well as on the Acute Psychiatry Service in the Emergency Department.

Dr. King received his MD from the University of Massachusetts and completed a residency in psychiatry at Mass General and McLean Hospitals, serving as the chief resident on the Consultation-Liaison Service. Following graduation, he completed a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry as well as a research fellowship with the Mass General Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program.

Jeremy N. Ruskin, MD is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Founder and Director Emeritus of the Telemachus & Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias and Cardiac Electrophysiology Training Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also holds the Omran Alomran Endowed Chair in Cardiology at MGH.

In 1978, Dr. Ruskin founded the Telemachus & Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias and Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory and the MGH Training Program in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, the first subspecialty clinical service and fellowship program dedicated to the care of patients with cardiac arrhythmias in New England and one of the first in the United States. Since its inception, the MGH Arrhythmia Service has been an international leader in innovative clinical care, research on the mechanisms of and new therapies for cardiac arrhythmias, and the training of future leaders in the field. During his 40-year tenure as Training Program Director, Dr. Ruskin was responsible for the training and mentorship of more than 150 clinical and research fellows in the subspecialty of clinical cardiac electrophysiology, many of whom hold senior leadership positions at academic centers throughout the world. Dr. Ruskin served as a member of the FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee for 5 years and has worked extensively on the scientific and regulatory aspects of medical device and drug development, as well as the cardiac safety of noncardiac drugs. In 1995, he founded the International Atrial Fibrillation Symposium which he has directed since its inception and is the largest and longest running free-standing meeting on atrial fibrillation worldwide, now entering its 27th year.

Dr. Ruskin’s research interests include mechanisms and prevention of cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, brain-heart interactions in patients with atrial fibrillation, new antiarrhythmic drugs and devices for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, cardiac safety issues in new drug and device development, and new approaches to myocardial preservation using novel biocompatible hydrogels for delivery of drugs and biologics in ischemic injury. He is an author of more than 500 original scientific publications, chapters, reviews, guidelines and monographs. Dr. Ruskin maintains an active regional, national and international referral practice in the field of cardiac arrhythmias and is recognized annually in Best Doctors in America. He is the recipient of the 1997 Michel Mirowski Award for Excellence in Clinical Cardiology and Electrophysiology, the 2002 Heart Rhythm Society Pioneer in Pacing and Electrophysiology Award, the 2015 KCHRS Pioneer in Electrophysiology Award and the 2018 William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.