Our mission

Classical psychedelics are showing breakthrough therapeutic potential in mental health, but their use is currently limited to certain patients and indications. We deeply respect these compounds and the legacy of indigenous people and research pioneers who discovered the amazing healing power of the psychedelic state.

Standing on the shoulders of these giants, we have identified a unique opportunity to use basic principles of psychedelic action to heal not only mental health, but also to prevent and restore age-related neurodegeneration.

Combining together the latest in AI-powered computational chemistry and psychedelic drug design, we are developing a unique class of compounds, which may provide a much-needed answer to the ever-rising threat of cognitive decline and dementia in our constantly aging population.

Photo by Maks Houbit

The limitations of current psychedelics

High-dose treatment (psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy)
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy uses psychedelics in high doses, which is mentally demanding, has many contraindications and requires a considerable time commitment from a specially trained psychotherapist. It was designed for and will likely be suitable only for mental health disorders.
Low-dose treatment (microdosing)
‍Microdosing uses low or “subperceptual” doses of psychedelics with some regularity, however, tolerance build up requires breaks between doses, so the effects are not constant. Clinical trials are still needed to show significant therapeutic efficacy and long-term safety (due to risk of 5-HT_2B-mediated cardiotoxicity).
"Nonpsychedelic psychedelics” (psychoplastogens)
Some researchers are exploring derivatives of psychedelics that apparently produce therapeutic action (in animal models) with no or minimal psychedelic effects. Because a body of evidence suggests psychedelic and therapeutic effects are closely correlated, these compounds likely act differently, lacking the psychedelic signature efficacy.

Our technology platform

There are more potential drug-like compounds than there are atoms in the observable universe.

Each of these potential molecules then has its own unique pattern of binding to the tens of thousands of molecular targets within our body. It is then no surprise that finding a therapeutic with the right binding profile and optimal properties by standard screening requires an enormous amount of money and time.

That is why we have developed a suite of AI-driven computational models and tools that allow us to efficiently search the immense chemical space for drug candidates matching a desired pattern.

These tools allow us to screen billion-compound libraries, automatically generate novel targeted molecules, predict dozens of complex molecular properties or even evolve drugs through structural mutation and crossover.

Copying nature’s ingenuity and effectiveness, our AI platform can greatly accelerate hit identification and lead optimization, while also providing higher quality candidates.

Our science

The foundations of our scientific hypothesis originate from our research project that started four years ago at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (UCT) and later included computational work done at University College London (UCL).

Inspired by seminal research into neuroplasticity and mechanisms of psychedelic action published at that time, this project had discovered that a largely unexplored class of psychedelic compounds may provide significant therapeutic benefits over classical psychedelics, according to both preclinical and clinical evidence. The bulk of the project then combined computational drug design with organic synthesis to eventually yield two distinct series of promising drug candidates.

Our strategy involves progressing the development of compounds synthesized at UCT as well as using the full capabilities of our AI platform to optimize, improve or design new compounds with this unique pharmacology.

We believe that enhancing neurorestorative and neuroprotective effects while reducing tolerance buildup and cardiotoxicity will enable safe and effective long-term daily dosing, even for elderly patients. Such compounds would then constitute ideal candidates for psychedelic treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and provide a powerful tool for our mental healthspan extension.

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As a result of their unique binding profile, these compounds may provide a range of benefits over first generation psychedelics, such as:

Providing both acute and long-term effects by activating multiple neuroplasticity-related pathways
Lower reliance on 5-HT_2A psychedelic target for its effects, resulting in:
- More neuroplastic and neurogenic effects than hallucinogenic ones – fewer contraindications
- Lower tolerance build-up – allowing regular pharmacotherapy
- Lower 5-HT_2B ligand similarity – lower cardiotoxicity risk
Innate neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects – added benefit for neurodegenerative disorders, neural injuries, and elderly or vulnerable patients

Photos by Milad Fakurian, HeungSoon, Pexels.

Founding team

Our experience in entrepreneurship, applied AI, software development & psychedelic drug design make us a well-rounded team, ready for the new era of drug discovery.

Dr Richard Dallaway

Combined expertise in machine learning and software engineering

Long history of successfully applying AI in different fields

Ing. Jáchym Fibír, MSc

Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology

4 years of research in psychedelic drug design, including an MSc at UCL

Suran Goonatilake, OBE

AI entrepreneur
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Co-founder of AI startup Searchspace ($150m exit)
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Professor at UCL Centre for AI

Scientific advisory board

Urszula Kozlowska Ph.D

Research on application of psychedelics as prospect therapeutic to stop the progress of neurodegeneration in dementia.
Polish Academy of Sciences
Dr Kozlowska is especially interested in the immunological aspects of the process of degeneration and regeneration of neural tissue. She has the experience in the bench-to-bedside process of novel therapeutic solutions discovery in basic, preclinical and clinical studies.
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Assoc. Prof. Ing. Martin Kuchař, Ph.D

A bioorganic chemist, who has been trained in forensic toxicology and neuropsychopharmacological research for more than 10 years.
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague
In the field of psychedelic substances he has a focus on the synthesis of pure alkaloids, their metabolism, and pharmacological characteristics with the potential to their use in psychiatric practice. He is an active member of the International Forensic Toxicological Society and tries to transpose current scientific knowledge into legal narcotics and psychotropic substances.

Prof. Ing. Daniel Svozil, Ph.D

Research in computational drug design and computational chemical biology.
University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague
In particular, chemical space exploration, de novo molecular design using deep learning approaches, synthetic accessibility prediction, molecular target identification and virtual screening of possibly active compounds. Dan is the head of the Department of Informatics and Chemistry, creator and guarantor of BSc., MSc. and Ph.D. study programs in bioinformatics, head of the cheminformatics unit of the CZ-OPENSCREEN, the Czech national node of European research infrastructure in chemical biology EU-OPENSCREEN.

Team

Dr. Richard Dallaway
Richard's expertise in AI spans 30 years from his undergraduate in AI, and his DPhil in machine learning at the University of Sussex. He has pioneered the use of deep-learning, evolutionary AI, among others, in fields as diverse as drug discovery to cancer diagnostics, to finding patterns in retail consumer purchase data. Richard combines his expertise in machine learning with deep knowledge of building and deploying large-scale enterprise software systems. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and a thought leader in the application of AI in scientific discovery.

Dr. Suran Goonatilake OBE
Suran is a visiting professor at the Computer Science Department at University College London (UCL) and co-founder of several deep-tech companies. He did his Phd in machine learning at UCL and along with fellow students co-founded Searchspace, a company that detects "unusual patterns" in financial transactions (e.g. insider-dealing), which was acquired by Warburg Pincus. He is co-editor of two books, "Intelligent Systems for Finance and Business" and "Intelligent Hybrid Systems". Suran was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005.

Chris Davidson
Chris has been the co-founder of several tech companies, leading product management in digital media and face recognition offerings. He has business development and consulting experience in pharmaceutical, healthcare and technology industries. His academic background in is Physiological Sciences and Drug Pharmacology from University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Medical School. As an active public speaker on physical and mental health, Chris is a passionate advocate of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy with deep knowledge and understanding of the industry.

Contact

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