Robert Malenka - Disruptive Psychopharmacology: Are the 60’s Back?

BrainMind Summit hosted at Stanford

Robert Malenka, MD, PhD
Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, Associate Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Deputy Director, Stanford Neurosciences Institute.
https://profiles.stanford.edu/robert-malenka

Psychopharmacology has been highly stigmatized due to unscrupulous research practices with psychedelics in the 1960s. Public opinion and government restrictions have hindered scientific progress in studying these substances and tapping into their therapeutic benefits. Our first speaker, Dr. Robert Malenka, celebrated the new era of psychopharmacology wherein scientists and researchers are measuring the effects of psychedelics, such as psilocybin and MDMA, on brain function. This new era, according to Dr. Malenka, produced expertise, new sources of funding, and a greater degree of government involvement (FDA) to support clinical research. However, he cautioned that scientists need to approach studies involving psychedelics with skepticism, neutrality, and non-evangelism – and emphasized the importance of good research practices such as double-blind research and constant communication.
Rob's bio:

Rob Malenka is Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Deputy Director of Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. A major goal of his laboratory is to elucidate both the specific molecular events that are responsible for the triggering of various forms of synaptic plasticity and the exact modifications in synaptic proteins that are responsible for the observed, long-lasting changes in synaptic efficacy. A related but independent area of research in his laboratory is the study of the synaptic action of drugs of abuse such as the psychostimulants cocaine and amphetamine.

Toward this end, he has developed in vitro slice preparations of the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area, brain regions which are thought to mediate several of the behavioral effects of drugs of abuse. Because chronic exposure to drugs of abuse elicit long-term adaptive changes in critical neural circuits, it is hoped that the knowledge gained from the work on the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity will provide important clues to the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of tolerance, dependence and addiction.

Dr. Malenka is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His laboratory research with the National Alzheimer's Foundation has informed researchers aiming to find a neuronal basis for Alzheimer's disease. He attended Harvard University and went on to receive his MD and PhD from Stanford University in 1983. While receiving these titles, he also completed his psychiatric residency at Stanford and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

Видео Robert Malenka - Disruptive Psychopharmacology: Are the 60’s Back? канала BrainMind Summit