Our lab enjoys teaming up to tackle big challenges. These are some of the amazing individuals we have the privilege of working with in our current studies, as well as a selection of those we’ve worked alongside in the past.

Our Collaborators and Community Partners

The Wenthur Lab works with these collaborators to support interdisciplinary clinical investigation into the necessity of consciousness awareness of the psychedelic experiences in generating the long-term behavioral changes elicited by psilocybin through the RECAP study and associated collaborative efforts. We work with the Banks Lab to assess the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of psychedelic drug action using pre-clinical model systems.

 

Together with our community partners, Dr. Vargas and Dr. Shiyanbola are working with us to help understand how different elements of self-identity influence reactions to the research protocols and spaces used in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy approaches. Together, we hope to expand understanding of and access to psychedelic research amongst groups currently underrepresented in clinical populations.

 

Drs. Bakshi and Huisken are working with us to understand the mechanism of action and map neuronal ensembles supporting ketamine’s rapidly-acting antidepressant activity through the application of predator-stress associated models and imaging of whole cleared brain tissues, respectively.

  • Vaishali Bakshi, PhD, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW–Madison
  • Jan Huisken, PhD; Morgridge Institute for Research, Medical Engineering and Integrative Biology, UW–Madison 

 

The Riley Lab at Illinois-Chicago shares their expertise in natural product isolation and analogue development in a project looking at novel analgesic approaches based on non-mu opioid targets.

Riley Lab

We are working with Drs. Leggio and Ferré to assess new central nervous system targets and develop first-in-class tool compounds with potential to understand the biology of and support treatment for substance use disorders.

  • Lorenzo Leggio, MD, PhD; NIDA/NIAAA, Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology Section
  • Sergi Ferré, MD, PhD; NIDA, Integrative Neurobiology Section

 

Our lab works with Dr. Frey to support the delivery and dissemination of best practices surrounding pharmacy roles in psychiatric treatment support, including use of pharmacogenetic testing approaches and implementation of naloxone outreach programs.

  • Theresa Frey, PharmD; William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital