About Carhart-Harris Lab
Carhart-Harris Lab is an academic collective. It is comprised of a network of collaborators linked to Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. The core team is located at The University of California San Francisco but our wider network is distributed across the world. Carhart-Harris Lab values principles of Open Science, including open access, resources, data, methods, and hypothesis sharing. We are driven by a desire to better understand, using the scientific method. Our core focus is on the nature of consciousness and mental health, including how mental health can be positively impacted on via psychedelic therapy and what its mechanisms of action are. Psychedelic compounds serve as focal scientific tools in this endeavor.
About Dr. Carhart-Harris
Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris is a leading researcher in the fields of human neuroscience and psychopharmacology. He is best known for his groundbreaking research on how psychedelic substances affect the brain and how they could be used as treatments for mental health issues such as depression.
Dr. Carhart-Harris is deeply interested in studying different states of consciousness and has been instrumental in renewing scientific interest in psychedelics as tools for exploring the mind and treating mental disorders.
His work has not only expanded our understanding of how the brain works but has also paved the way for innovative approaches to treating mental health problems. Through his research, Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris continues to shape the field of psychedelic science and its implications for human psychology, neuroscience and well-being.
Dr Carhart-Harris is the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco. Robin moved to UCSF in 2021. In April 2019, he founded the world’s first Center for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, where he now holds an Honorary Professorship.
He has designed multimodal human brain imaging studies with psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and DMT, and several clinical trials of psilocybin therapy for severe mental illnesses, including three trials of psilocybin therapy for depression and additional trials of psilocybin therapy for anorexia and fibromyalgia syndrome. Robin was named among the top 31 medical scientists by The Times in 2020, and was listed in TIME magazine’s ‘100 Next’ in 2021, a list of rising stars shaping the future. Also in 2021, Robin was publicly voted psychedelic researcher of the year - in inaugural awards organized by Microdose, and in 2023, he was listed in Vox magazine’s ‘Future Perfect 50’, a list of change-makers positively impacting the future.
In collaboration with the translational neuroscience center, Neuroscape, Dr. Carhart-Harris’ lab are currently focused on a deep fMRI and EEG investigation of the brain action of psilocybin, and separately, a large study that aims to test whether psilocybin synergises with contextual factors to drive psychological responses. His colleagues and collaborators at Imperial College London are completing two separate trials involving psilocybin therapy for anorexia and fibromyalgia syndrome as well as neuroimaging studies with DMT and 5-MeO-DMT.