Dr. Charles Nichols is a professor of pharmacology at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. He is also the lead scientist at the life science company Eleusis.
Dr. Nichols earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and biochemistry from Purdue University in 1989. He went on to receive a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 and completed his postdoc in pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in 2002.
Dr. Nichols has been investigating the effects of various serotonergic agents, including hallucinogens, on the patterns of gene expression in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.1 During the course of his work, he developed a genetic model system in fruit flies to understand the pathways linking serotonin receptors to specific behaviors.2 Dr. Nichols discovered that psychedelic drugs have powerful anti-inflammatory effects.3-5 These effects are mediated via a functionally selective process at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor.
Most recently, Dr. Nichols and his team completed a phase 1 clinical trial exploring the safety and tolerability of using LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in conjunction with therapy for treating Alzheimer’s disease.6
A full list of Dr. Nichol’s scholarly work is available on Google Scholar.
Barbara E. Bauer, MS
Barb is the former Editor and one of the founders of Psychedelic Science Review. She is currently a contributing writer. Her goal is making accurate and concise psychedelic science research assessable so that researchers and private citizens can make informed decisions.