Imagine a medicine that can help heal the brain—boosting growth in areas damaged by depression, stress, or even schizophrenia—without causing hallucinations. That’s exactly what a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, may have created.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists unveiled (+)-JRT, a molecule nearly identical to LSD but engineered to skip the hallucinations while retaining the brain-repairing benefits (Tuck et al., 2025).

“Basically, what we did here is a tire rotation,” said Dr. David E. Olson, corresponding author and director of the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics. “By just transposing two atoms in LSD, we significantly improved JRT’s selectivity profile and reduced its hallucinogenic potential” (UC Davis News, 2025).

Why This Matters for GMDP Academy Learners

For GMDP Academy participants, this research exemplifies how rational drug design, a core concept in drug discovery and development, can lead to safer and more accessible therapeutics. In our Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance modules, we explore the kind of strategic compound development that makes medicines like JRT possible—particularly for previously untreatable populations.

This work also reflects the translational value we emphasize across our curriculum: turning bench science into clinical innovation that aligns with evolving regulatory, ethical, and patient-centered standards.

Brain Healing, Without the Hallucinations

The research team spent five years perfecting a 12-step synthesis to develop JRT, named after co-first author Jeremy R. Tuck. Though JRT shares LSD’s molecular weight and structure, it behaves very differently in the brain:

  • It selectively targets serotonin receptors, especially 5-HT2A, known to enhance neural growth.
  • It promoted 46% more dendritic spines and 18% more synapses in the prefrontal cortex.
  • It didn’t trigger hallucinogenic behaviors or gene expressions linked to psychosis.
  • It showed robust antidepressant effects, about 100 times more potent than ketamine.
  • It also improved cognitive flexibility, a major challenge in schizophrenia care.

“JRT has extremely high therapeutic potential,” Olson added. “Right now, we are testing it in other disease models, improving its synthesis, and creating new analogues that might be even better” (UC Davis News, 2025).

Safer Psychedelics for Complex Conditions

The potential of JRT to treat schizophrenia is especially notable. Hallucinogens are typically avoided in patients with psychotic disorders due to safety concerns. But JRT seems to sidestep those risks.

“No one really wants to give a hallucinogenic molecule like LSD to a patient with schizophrenia,” Olson noted. “The development of JRT emphasizes that we can use psychedelics like LSD as starting points to make better medicines” (UC Davis News, 2025).

For professionals learning through GMDP Academy, this marks a prime example of targeted innovation—where understanding molecular interactions enables the creation of drugs for populations previously excluded from therapeutic advances.

From the Lab to Global Impact

At GMDP Academy, we prepare learners to understand not just how these breakthroughs happen, but why they matter to global medicines development. JRT’s design and testing reflect a future-forward approach that merges precision pharmacology, neuroethics, and patient access—themes that echo across our CMD certification curriculum.

As JRT advances through additional testing, its story will continue to be a case study in how science, regulation, and clinical need converge to shape the next generation of neurotherapeutics.

References

Tuck, J. R., Dunlap, L. E., Khatib, Y. A., et al. (2025). Molecular design of a therapeutic LSD analogue with reduced hallucinogenic potential. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(16), e2416106122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2416106122

UC Davis News. (2025, April 12). Researchers develop LSD analogue with potential for treating schizophrenia. https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/researchers-develop-lsd-analogue-potential-treating-schizophrenia

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open-access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred