UNSW partners with Australian biotech Psylo to innovate mental health treatment
Ready for the magic of mushrooms? UNSW welcomes first chemistry biotechnology company, Psylo
Left to right: Dr. Sam Banister (Psylo), A/Prof. Luke Henderson (UNSW), Dr. William Jorgenson (Psylo), Dr. Glen Surjadinata, Dr. Jin Tan (Psylo).
With the launch of our SynBio 10x Accelerator, biotech is booming, which is why we’re excited to welcome Australian biotech Psylo to UNSW’s thriving biotechnology community. Psylo have taken up residency at UNSW’s Kensington campus as part of a research collaboration to develop novel treatments for mental health disorders.
Psylo is a biotechnology company developing novel antidepressants inspired by classic psychedelic drugs, like psilocybin from “magic mushrooms” and LSD.
While showing promising results in early-stage trials, first generation “classic” psychedelic treatments have several limitations in the clinic. Classic psychedelics induce intense subjective effects–lasting up to 12 hours in some cases–that require close monitoring from medical staff. This long duration of action limits broad access to these medicines due to the prohibitive costs of clinical supervision. Classic psychedelics also induce intense hallucinations, which are undesirable for some and might not be necessary for their therapeutic actions.
Psylo, formed by serial founder and biotech investor Josh Ismin and medicinal chemist and biotech entrepreneur Dr Samuel Banister, is focused on addressing the limitations of current psychedelic therapeutics by developing highly optimised “next-generation” psychedelic medicines that are safe, effective, and accessible to those in need.
Psylo is the first chemistry-focused biotech company to take up residency at UNSW’s School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences and gain access to laboratories and university facilities. The cross-sector integration has already proven successful for UNSW’s Associate Professor Luke Hunter, from the School of Chemistry, who was awarded seed funding for a collaborative partnership with the biotech company.
Prof Hunter is an expert in innovative methods for incorporating fluorine atoms into drug molecules and will use his expertise to improve the potency, metabolism, and side-effect profile of Psylo’s growing portfolio of new chemical entities.
Professor Scott Kable, Acting Dean of UNSW Science, believes partnerships like this serve to strengthen the outlook for Australian scientific research and development.
“Having private companies on campus is a win-win: exposure to industry partners provides collaboration opportunities and work experience for researchers and students in the UNSW community, while the company can tap into the cutting edge research facilities we have on offer,” he said.
“We’re very excited to have Psylo colocate at the School of Chemistry and look forward to working with the team to grow the relationship in the coming years.”
“UNSW has been very welcoming in bringing the Psylo team on campus, and providing a key layer of support for an innovative start-up like ours” said Psylo Co-Founder and CEO Josh Ismin.
“The partnership with UNSW will serve to accelerate Psylo’s development of next-generation psychedelics and we’re excited to be a part of the budding entrepreneurial ecosystem at UNSW.”
David Burt, UNSW’s Director of Entrepreneurship has identified how having Psylo on campus is an important bridge between the cultures of academia and startups.
“Having Psylo join us on campus means that they will be doing their product development work shoulder to shoulder in the same labs as UNSW scientists that are undertaking research experiments. This environment will create relationships and future ideas that will radically increase the amount entrepreneurial activity emerging from UNSW.”