Psychedelic medicines

Matt Piggot completed his BSc and PhD at the University of Western Australia (UWA) under the supervision of Dieter Wege, working on the total synthesis of natural products. He then took up a post-doctoral fellowship with Martin Banwell and Chris Easton in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University (ANU), involving antibiotic drug discovery in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. His second post-doc, with T. Ross Kelly at Boston College, was directed at the synthesis of a chemically powered, unidirectional molecular motor. Matt was appointed to an academic position at the ANU in the Department of Chemistry in 2003, and moved to the School of Molecular Sciences at UWA in 2005, where he is currently Associate Professor. Matt’s research involves the design and synthesis of biologically active compounds, in the context of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and natural product total synthesis. His endeavours in MDMA-inspired drug discovery began 20 years ago, and were recently reinvigorated through partnership with Perth-based clinical biotech company Emyria Ltd.

Peter Duggan obtained his BSc(Hons) from Flinders University and PhD from the Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University (ANU), working under the guidance of Prof. A. L. J. Beckwith. After post-doctoral work at Columbia University (New York) and the University of Cambridge, he took up academic positions, first at James Cook University, then at Monash University. In 2004, he ‘stepped across the road’ to CSIRO Clayton, where he is currently Senior Principal Research Scientist and Leader of CSIRO’s Botanical Extracts Laboratory (BEL). Peter is also Adjunct Professor in the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University. For more than a decade, Peter has been heavily involved in commercial research with botanical extracts. The BEL is a secure facility, in which research work with local companies is undertaken, including the analysis, processing, refinement and formulation of plant extracts, and the synthesis of phytochemicals. The laboratory has a special focus on phytocannabinoids, psychedelics and the ethical development of plant-derived medicines of importance to First Nations People.