Imagine looking at the Boston skyline, and on one of those rooftops, there's something extraordinary. At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), scientists nurture plants that might change how our brains function. These researchers, from the Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics, are studying how these plants interact with the human nervous system. They hope to answer profound questions about consciousness and develop new psychiatric drugs.

The Leading Scientist: Stephen Haggarty

Stephen Haggarty, a neuroscientist and chemical biologist at Harvard Medical School, leads this groundbreaking work. He believes psychedelics can offer new treatments for mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and addiction. According to Haggarty, "I personally believe psychedelics have the potential to provide some novel treatments." He adds that "to deliver those as medicine safely is really what we're working through as a larger society".

The Greenhouse and Its Roots

Haggarty revived decades-old research on psychoactive substances—substances that affect the brain or change mood and behavior. Inside his office, a stone-carved replica of an Aztec god surrounded by various plants sits on his desk. This statue might hold clues about how psychedelic botanicals were used centuries ago. "That statue really does capture most of the major classes of psychedelic and psychoactive plants," Haggarty explains, including psychedelic mushrooms known to the Aztecs as "teonanacatl".

This ancient statue also appears on the cover of "Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use," a book by the late Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. Schultes discovered potential medicinal uses for psilocybin, found in psychedelic mushrooms. He collected thousands of plant specimens from Mexico and the Amazon, working closely with indigenous groups. "The field of ethnobotany has a colonial tint to it that is an important aspect to recognize," Haggarty notes.

Continuing Schultes' Work

Haggarty continues Schultes' research, studying documents and the work of Schultes' students. He identified more than 50 psychedelic plants used by shamans that were never studied in a lab before. Now, he grows these plants in the greenhouse on the MGH rooftop. About a dozen plants await lab testing. "It's a great example of the fact that over time our societies tend to normalize psychedelic and psychoactive plants," Haggarty says. "We can even walk through the Boston Common and identify some of these plants".

The Power of Stem Cell Technology

In the past, researchers sometimes ingested plant compounds. Today, the approach is more scientific. Researchers use DNA sequencing before testing on human skin cells. These cells get reprogrammed into stem cells and eventually into "mini brains." "Stem cell technology is one of the most remarkable technologies," Haggarty states. This allows them to closely observe how psychoactive substances affect neuroplasticity—how the brain adapts and changes.

Digging Deeper with Advanced Tools

Using an advanced microscope called the InCell Analyzer 6000, scientists see how brain synapses respond to different compounds. More synaptic activity indicates better cognitive functions like memory. "If I have more synapses that are communicating well together, I have better ability for cognitive processes of all sorts, including memory," explains Surya Reis, executive director of the medicinal plant lab at MGH. "Any actual function that the brain has will be improved by this activity".

Challenges and Future Prospects

Despite the promise, studying psychedelics comes with challenges. Psychedelics are illegal under federal law, so testing is limited. MGH received federal approval for small clinical trials of psilocybin for patients with treatment-resistant depression. The hospital is also testing a combo of psychedelics and MDMA with therapy to treat PTSD in veterans. Haggarty predicts it will take years before psychedelics become widely available for treating mental health conditions. "One of the challenges ... in psychiatry is that we don't understand, in fact, very precisely, how many of the existing drugs work," he says.

Looking Ahead

Haggarty believes the research at MGH is poised to contribute significantly to the future of psychedelic therapy. Referring to MGH's historic role in anesthesia research, he says, "Those we consider the first loss of consciousness experiments. We'd like to think we're working on enhancing consciousness on the next rooftop over".