World-renowned expert in psychopharmacology, addiction, and mental health treatments joins the fast-growing neuroscience company to help advance pioneering therapeutics
BOSTON, Oct. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Delix Therapeutics (the “Company”), a neuroscience company developing novel disease-modifying therapeutics for serious psychiatric and neurological conditions, today announced the appointment of Dr. John Krystal, a leading expert in the study and treatment of alcohol use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and depression, to its Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board.
Widely known for leading the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients, Dr. Krystal serves as the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Psychology; Co-Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University and Chief of Psychiatry for the Yale-New Haven Hospital. He also holds roles as Director of the NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism, and Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, he is serving his second term as co-chair of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders (NeuroForum) of NASEM and is the editor of Biological Psychiatry.
“Delix is on a mission to address the significant need for more effective and safer options for the millions of people currently suffering from mental health and other debilitating brain disorders. Dr. Krystal is a true pioneer. His early research leadership with ketamine, amongst his many contributions to neuroscience, has helped build the foundation for the promise of psychoplastogens, and we are thrilled to add his expertise to our world-class team and esteemed group of scientific advisors,” said Delix CEO Mark Rus.
Delix’s Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board is comprised of leaders with decades of research and commercial experience to help Delix advance its platform of novel non-hallucinogenic psychedelic-inspired analogs into orally-bioavailable, take-home therapies. Delix’s compounds have been shown to produce both fast-acting and long-lasting beneficial re-wiring of neural circuitry associated with depression and other psychiatric disorders, and the Company is rapidly developing these easily-manufactured compounds to provide scalable mental health solutions. Delix’s library of more than 1,000 compounds has been built with the aim to avoid the patient hurdles of costly in-clinic care, safety issues, and abuse potential inherent to first and second-generation neural plasticity-promoting compounds such as ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA.
“As societal awareness of addiction, PTSD, and other neuropsychiatric disorders grows, it is incumbent upon the scientific community to collaborate with credible, mission-driven organizations like Delix to safely bring innovative therapies to patients in need,” said Dr. John Krystal. “I am pleased to see the evolution of my early work on ketamine for such promising therapies being developed today, and to support this impressive group leading the way on the next generation of mental health medicines.”
Delix’s scientific approach for developing scalable treatments for brain disorders was recently featured in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. Delix is grounded in the research of co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer David E. Olson, PhD, whose work has been published in Nature, Cell, Cell Reports, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and Molecular Psychiatry, among other publications. Delix was also recently named among the “Fierce15” companies of 2021 by Fierce Biotech.
About Delix Therapeutics
Delix Therapeutics is a neuroscience company focused on harnessing the power of psychoplastogens—novel neuroplasticity-promoting therapeutics—to better treat mental health disorders at scale. The company’s compounds are easily manufactured small molecules capable of rapidly inducing structural and functional neural changes in targeted areas of the brain. Many of these molecules are inspired by psychedelic compounds and preserve their efficacy-promoting mechanisms while avoiding their hallucinogenic properties and other safety liabilities. Delix is rapidly advancing these compounds through preclinical and clinical development to bring patients FDA-approved, take-home medicines that will serve several unmet needs. Headquartered in Massachusetts, Delix is building a world-class biotechnology company by combining an experienced team with innovative treatment strategies and scientific rigor to address the significant and growing mental health challenges impacting society.
