#20: Jackie von Salm, Ph.D. - Natural Products & Novel Therapies

Apr 4, 2024

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Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

This week, I am speaking with Dr. Jackie von Salm, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Psilera, a biotech company pioneering early-stage psychedelic-inspired drug discovery and development for neurological conditions.

If you’ve ever been curious about the intricate and fascinating world of drug discovery, this conversation is a must-listen.

Jackie walks me through the entire process, from scaffolds to IND submission and all the steps in between.

Along the way, we discuss her background in natural product chemistry, the role of secondary metabolites, and a unique property of adaptive physiology whereby some types of stress actually strengthen organisms.

We discuss the origin story of Psilera and the inspiration from 2 Bromo-LSD, a non-hallucinogenic compound that has been successfully used by people suffering from cluster headaches, among other neurological conditions.

We discuss the increasing role of AI and computation in the drug discovery process but also the ‘chemical intuition’ that one develops after years of practicing chemistry.

We dive into the emerging field of neuropsychiatric biomarkers, a toolset that has eluded researchers, clinicians, and patients in this particular field, and how EEG and other brain imaging technologies may be the answer.

We discuss the perception of psychedelic drug development in the eyes of the pharma world and much more.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Dr. Jackie von Salm.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

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Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

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