When
Where
Dalibor Sames, Ph.D
Department of Chemistry
The Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute
Columbia University
Co-founder of Gilgamesh Pharma
Ibogaine and Matrix Pharmacology Theory: New Framework for Understanding and Developing Iboga Neurotherapeutics
Ibogaine is the main psychoactive alkaloid produced by the iboga tree (Tabernanthe iboga) that has a unique therapeutic potential for multiple clinical indications, including opioid dependence, substance use disorders (OUD & SUD), depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and Parkinson’s disease. There is a growing movement where thousands seek experimental ibogaine treatment in clinics abroad to alleviate suffering from a wide range of symptoms and neuropsychiatric conditions. This lecture will focus on the key questions my research program has been addressing in the past 20 years: How do we mechanistically explain ibogaine's trans-diagnostic therapeutic effects where classic pharmacological concepts seem inadequate? Can we mitigate the critical liability of ibogaine, risk of cardiac arrhythmias, by creating new analogs? And how do we assess preclinically if safer analogs maintain ibogaine's therapeutic effects. A new theory - Iboga Matrix Pharmacology - will be introduced and discussed in the context of serotonin and dopamine synaptic transmission.