Adam L. Halberstadt is an American neuroscientist and pharmacologist who studies psychedelic drugs from a cross-species translational perspective. He is a Professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Director of the UCSD Center for Psychedelic Research. One of his most notable contributions has been the development of an automated assay for the head-twitch response, a behavioral proxy of psychedelic effects in animals. He has used the head-twitch response assay to investigate the 5-HT2A receptor signaling mechanisms involved in the effects of psychedelic drugs. He is one of the Principal Investigators on a clinical trial being conducted at UCSD to test whether psilocybin can relieve phantom limb pain in amputees. In February 2021, he formed a collaboration with COMPASS Pathways to develop novel psychedelic drugs as therapeutics. In 2022, has was listed as an inventor on an application for a US Patent covering novel 5-HT2A ligands acting as partial or biased agonists. He has also collaborated with BetterLife Pharma Inc. on a project designed to investigate the pharmacology of the non-psychedelic LSD derivative BOL-148, also known as 2-bromo-LSD. Halberstadt received his bachelor's degree in neuroscience from the University of Delaware in 1998 and his Doctor of Philosophy in neurobiology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006.

Selected publications

  • Halberstadt, Adam L.; Nichols, David E. (2010). "Serotonin and Serotonin Receptors in Hallucinogen Action". Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience. Vol. 21. Elsevier. pp. 621–636. doi:. ISBN 978-0-12-374634-4.
  • Grob CS, Danforth AL, Chopra GS, Hagerty M, McKay CR, Halberstadt AL, Greer GR (January 2011). "Pilot study of psilocybin treatment for anxiety in patients with advanced-stage cancer". Arch Gen Psychiatry. 68 (1): 71–78. doi:. PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL, Geyer MA (September 2011). . Neuropharmacology. 61 (3): 364–381. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL, Koedood L, Powell SB, Geyer MA (November 2011). . J Psychopharmacol. 25 (11): 1548–1561. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL, Geyer MA (June 2013). . Psychopharmacology (Berl). 227 (4): 727–739. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL (January 2015). . Behav Brain Res. 277: 99–120. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Halberstadt, Adam L.; Geyer, Mark A. (2016). "Effect of Hallucinogens on Unconditioned Behavior". Behavioral Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences. Vol. 36. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 159–199. doi:. ISBN 978-3-662-55878-2. PMC . PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL (2017). "Pharmacology and Toxicology of N-Benzylphenethylamine ("NBOMe") Hallucinogens". Neuropharmacology of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences. Vol. 32. pp. 283–311. doi:. ISBN 978-3-319-52442-9. PMID .
  • Halberstadt AL, Chatha M, Klein AK, Wallach J, Brandt SD (May 2020). . Neuropharmacology. 167 107933. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Poulie CB, Jensen AA, Halberstadt AL, Kristensen JL (December 2020). . ACS Chem Neurosci. 11 (23): 3860–3869. doi:. PMC . PMID .
  • Wallach J, Cao AB, Calkins MM, Heim AJ, Lanham JK, Bonniwell EM, Hennessey JJ, Bock HA, Anderson EI, Sherwood AM, Morris H, de Klein R, Klein AK, Cuccurazzu B, Gamrat J, Fannana T, Zauhar R, Halberstadt AL, McCorvy JD (December 2023). . Nat Commun. 14 (1): 8221. doi:. PMC . PMID .

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