This week’s Psychedelic Titan is Dr. Hyder A. Khoja, Chief Scientific Officer of My Fungi Inc. My Fungi Inc. grows beautiful and delicious Fresh Mushrooms and has developed high-yielding Grow-It-Yourself kits for growers of any size or application.
What’s this article series about? Psychedelic Titans is a get-to-know-you-style blog series interviewing some of the psychedelic industry’s most influential and impactful individuals.
When did you first become involved in the psychedelic industry and why?
I leverage my knowledge in Drug Discoveries from the plant, herb, and fungi extracts and their analytics to validate consistent medical-grade plant Nano-molecules for therapeutics. My expertise in science and policy domains has led me to distinguished discoveries in scientific research for Psychedelics.
Originally a Plant geneticist by trade, I have been visionary towards Molecular concepts and genetic engineering of living organisms. The innovative approach hits close to home for me. Nine years ago my mom fell into a coma due to complications from brain surgery. She woke up 3-weeks after the surgery. “When she woke up, all we could see in her, was a little bit of eye movement. Then she closed her eyes again for two years, and she was just resting on the bed in a comatose state.” Witnessing this, and finding out that there are no treatments for these patients, formed the bedrock of inspiration in me to discover for Coma Resurrection.
My latest venture at Transcendent Therapeutics aims to use compounds like psilocybin, LSD, and DMT to develop what it calls “Coma Resurrection Therapy”.
Do you, or have you taken, psychedelic substances?
No.
What’s your favourite psychedelic compound?
Selective compounds such as LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, and MDMA.
Do your parents/family members know what you’re doing?
Yes.
Have you had an experience with mental health/chronic pain?
No.
What’s your vision of the industry in 20 years?
Used for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of the Amazon rain forest, the Psychedelic drugs are now becoming increasingly popular in the West. Psychologists recommend healing experiences and draws on powerful medicine’s effects on depressions, addiction, PTSD, anxiety and on my personal search for “Coma Resurrection Therapy.”
In this wide ranging and personal exploration, risks and benefits, helping people in need, mental health and brain science has profound impact on mental illnesses. I assess the growing research on the potential of hallucinogens to treat depression and anxiety among many other unmet mental needs.
What are your biggest worries for the industry?
“War on drugs,” all but a few psychiatrists have avoided publicly testing Entheogens. Selective compounds such as LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, etc. and their current restrictions to use at the level of research would be hurdles at the moment. Support and multi facade research and development are already underway at the Imperial College of London and John Hopkins University to validate the need and efficacy of these drugs and their potential therapeutic benefits of these compounds.
The FDA has given a designation that comes with extra guidance through a faster review process for certain compounds.
But still the current state of legalization needed to be advocated.
Who are your heroes?
Alexander Fleming
Albert Hoffman
And my mother
If you could create a psychedelic to do anything you wanted, what would it do?
Personally, if I could pinpoint an exact Psychedelics compound to be able to activate sleeping neuron transmitters, and if that happens, it could revive an individual out of Coma based on the functioning of the brain.
And so, we need to kind of get into the brain to figure out how does it work and how do malfunctioning circuits in the brain give rise to coma. And what’s fascinating about this is that the brain, although it is very much protected in its skull is engulfed by a very tough membrane dura mater it still can ignite Non-sensing neurons.
And, if I could alter brain neuron signaling functions, it is really probably the most sensitive positionality for the brain to pick up signals which are governed due to environment both outside and within the body and it responds and its function is to create the response of the body, be it cognitive response about ones lost thoughts, feelings, emotions, things like that could be a flight and fight response, but in essence, it responds to the environment and molecules which ignite the brain function back to normal from coma stage.
We’d like to thank Dr. Hyder A. Khoja for being a part of the Psychedelic Titans series. Stay tuned for weekly profiles on leaders in the psychedelic industry.
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