Mindstate Design Labs

{{Short description|American pharmaceutical company}} {{Infobox company | name = | logo = Mindstate Design Labs logo.png | logo_class = skin-invert-image logo-nobg | logo_size = 200px | logo_caption = | logo_alt = | former_name = Kykeon Biotechnologies | type = Private | industry = Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical industry; Psychedelic medicine | founded = {{Start date and age|2021}} in San Francisco, United States | founder = Dillan DiNardo, Thomas Ray | defunct = | fate = | successor = | hq_location_city = San Francisco, California | hq_location_country = United States | area_served = | key_people = Dillan DiNardo, Thomas Ray, Josie Kins | products = MSD-001 (5-MeO-MiPT), undisclosed combinations | owner = Dillan DiNardo, Thomas Ray, Ann Shulgin (former co-owner), others | website = {{URL|https://mindstate.design/}} }}

'''Mindstate Design Labs''' is an American pharmaceutical company which is studying psychedelic drugs and developing combinations of psychedelics and other drugs for potential medical use.<ref name="Mullin2025">{{cite web | last=Mullin | first=Emily | title=A Startup Used AI to Make a Psychedelic Without the Trip | website=WIRED | date=24 September 2025 | url=https://www.wired.com/story/a-startup-used-ai-to-make-a-psychedelic-without-the-trip/ | access-date=4 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="Briggs2025">{{cite web | last=Briggs | first=Saga | title=The next era of psychedelics may be precision-designed states of consciousness | website=Big Think | date=3 April 2025 | url=https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/ai-psychedelics-mindstate/ | access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Dunne2025">{{cite web | last=Dunne | first=Rowan | title=Mindstate Design Labs uses AI to provide customized psychedelic experiences | website=Mugglehead Investment Magazine | date=17 June 2025 | url=https://mugglehead.com/mindstate-design-labs-uses-ai-to-provide-customized-psychedelic-experiences/ | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> The company makes prominent use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their drug development process.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Rogers-Coltman2025" />

==Company history== Mindstate Design Labs is based in San Francisco, California<ref name="Dunne2025" /> and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania<ref name="Burkholder2022" /><ref name="Sullivan2022">{{cite web | title = VC money keeps flowing into psychedelics-based mental health | publisher = Fast Company | website = fastcompany.com | date = 12 February 2022 | url = https://www.fastcompany.com/90720911/mindstate-psychedelics}}</ref><ref name="LeeSchuster-Bruce2022">{{cite web | last1=Lee | first1=Yeji Jesse | last2=Schuster-Bruce | first2=Catherine | title=Here are the 7 hottest psychedelics startups that are set to take off in 2022, according to 3 top VCs in the space | website=Business Insider | date=29 March 2022 | url=https://www.businessinsider.com/top-psychedelics-startups-top-female-vc-investors-2022-3#mindstate-design-labs-5 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> and was founded in 2021,<ref name="Sullivan2022" /><ref name="LeeSchuster-Bruce2022" /><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2023">{{cite web | author=Psychedelic Alpha | title=Panel: Three Psychedelics Companies that Raised in 2022 | website=Psychedelic Alpha | date=24 January 2023 | url=https://psychedelicalpha.com/news/panel-three-psychedelics-companies-that-raised-in-2022 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> with its public launch in January 2022.<ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Burkholder2022" /> The company was co-founded by Dillan DiNardo, a biotechnology venture capitalist, and Thomas "Tom" Ray, an evolutionary biologist.<ref name="Lee2022" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2023" /> DiNardo serves as the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while Ray is the company's scientific founder.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /> Beyond his work as an evolutionary biologist, Ray is notable in having published a major study screening the receptor and other target interactions of 35{{nbsp}}different serotonergic psychedelics and related psychoactive drugs in 2010.<ref name="Nichols2016">{{cite journal | vauthors = Nichols DE | title = Psychedelics | journal = Pharmacol Rev | volume = 68 | issue = 2 | pages = 264–355 | date = April 2016 | pmid = 26841800 | pmc = 4813425 | doi = 10.1124/pr.115.011478 | url = | quote = Agonist or partial agonist activity at the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor was ultimately concluded to be a necessary pharmacology for psychedelic effects, but it may not be sufficient to explain all of the qualitative differences between different drugs. As Ray (2010) pointed out, different molecules may also have significant affinity for other types of brain receptors. [...] Therefore, when a molecule is classified as a 5-HT2A agonist, what exactly does that mean in terms of cellular responses? Furthermore, how will different proportions of intracellular signaling events affect the qualitative aspects of a "psychedelic" intoxication? It will take a great deal more research before these questions can be answered. [...] Ray (2010) reported on receptor screening of 25 hallucinogens and analogs by the National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, with affinities of 10 additional drugs taken from the literature. The 35 drugs of the study had very diverse patterns of interaction, which may underlie some of the qualitative psychopharmacological differences between the drugs. Functional effects of the various compounds were not studied, however, which would have strengthened the conclusions and given more detailed insight into the possible relevance of receptors where some of the tested drugs had relatively high affinity.}}</ref><ref name="DiNardo2022a" /><ref name="Ray2010">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ray TS | title = Psychedelics and the human receptorome | journal = PLoS One | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | article-number = e9019 | date = February 2010 | pmid = 20126400 | pmc = 2814854 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0009019 | doi-access = free| url = }}</ref><ref name="Ray2004">{{cite conference | author = Thomas S. Ray | title = 107. The Chemical Architecture of the Human Mind: Probing Receptor Space with Psychedelics | conference = Towards a Science of Consciousness, April 7–11, 2004, Tucson Convention Center, Tucson, Arizona | date = 8 April 2004 | pages = 51–52 | url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060221095451/http://datamonster.sbs.arizona.edu/consciousness/conference/tucson2004/prog.pdf#page=51}}</ref> He selected these psychedelics with input from the psychedelic chemist Alexander Shulgin in the 2000s, with Shulgin having discovered and described many of them.<ref name="Austin2024">{{cite podcast | host=Paul F. Austin | date=26 February 2024 | title = [Episode 236:] Designing States of Consciousness: Unique Approaches to Psychedelic Drug Development | url=https://thethirdwave.co/podcast/episode-236-dillan-dinardo/ | work=The Psychedelic Podcast | publisher=ThirdWave | quote=[...] the fact that Ann Shulgin was one of the three original owners in Mindstate Design [...] How is it that Ann Shulgin was one of the original three owners [...] And so our scientific founder, Dr. Tom Ray, was a friend and collaborator of the Shulgins. [...] So this observation that different psychedelics produce very different effects was something he had back in the '70s. I think he was 16 years old, trying some different psychedelics and observing those differences. [...] And so in the 2000s, he and Sasha selected a variety of these psychedelic drugs, most of which were created by Sasha, and had them assayed. So these were the broadest assays of psychedelic drugs. [...] but what happens when we start combining drugs that hit serotonin 2A with other targets that no psychedelic has ever hit before, other receptors in the brain that no other psychedelics hit. And what happens there, and what we're seeing in unstructured and informal human data outside of the clinic is that there are these new states of consciousness [...]}}</ref> Another notable employee is Josie Kins, who works as a psychedelic phenomenologist and AI performance specialist at the company.<ref name="French2023">{{cite web | last=French | first=Kristen | title=What Hallucinogens Will Make You See | website=Nautilus | date=2 June 2023 | url=https://nautil.us/what-hallucinogens-will-make-you-see-308247/ | quote=Psychonaut turned scientific researcher Josie Kins has personally tried over 200 psychedelic compounds and had hundreds of psychedelic experiences. But she no longer takes them herself. "I've already explored them so thoroughly," she says. Over the past 12 years, Kins has compiled a list of 233 effects people experience under the influence of psychedelic drugs, drawn from online accounts and her own experience, called the Subjective Effect Index. In 2021, she began working for a startup drug company called Mindstate Design Labs to make the classification system more precise and comprehensive, under the advisement of renowned psychedelic researchers Thomas Ray and Andy Newburg. That work could double the total number of entries on the list, she says. But it's the cognitive and emotional effects that seem to elude categorization and need the most refining. "The visual effects are already rigorous," says Kins.}}</ref><ref name="Blacker2024">{{cite book | last=Blacker | first=David J. | title=Deeper Learning with Psychedelics: Philosophical Pathways through Altered States | publisher=State University of New York Press | date=1 June 2024 | isbn=978-1-4384-9814-0 | doi=10.1515/9781438498140 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XkCEQAAQBAJ | pages=14,112–114,117–118 | quote=Along these same lines, there are publicly accessible ongoing analyses of a wide range of psychedelic compounds, such as that provided by Mindstate Design Labs (UK) psychedelics researcher (and YouTuber) Josie Kins, who has developed a helpful Subjective Effects Index (EffectIndex.com), "which features a granular taxonomy of the subjective psychedelic experience" aimed at "developing a universal terminology set for discussing and describing that which was previously ineffable."52 Kins's ongoing experiential database and associated frameworks are the most comprehensive currently available (I utilize her work in chapter 2).52}}</ref><ref name="Sterling2025">{{cite podcast | url=https://tripsitter.substack.com/p/22-mapping-the-ineffable-josie-kins | title=#22: Mapping the Ineffable: Josie Kins on Documenting Psychedelic States | website=Tripsitter Podcast | publisher=Tripsitter | host=Taylor Sterling | date=18 September 2025 | quote=[Kins:] I work full-time for a biotech company founded by a friend of the Shulgin's, called Mind State Design Labs. [...] [Sterling:] Is that the emergent effect index that you're working on at MindState? [Kins:] Yes, I built it out a couple of years ago. It incorporates every other classification system, sort of inter-translates all of the different terms, but it's still somewhat confidential as a company property. It will be put out there as open source, though, because it's not even patentable, and we want it to be a universal terminology set eventually.}}</ref><ref name="DiNardo2022a">{{cite conference | last = DiNardo | first = Dillan | title = Intentional Design of Novel Modified Conscious States / Mapping the Biological Basis of the Psychedelic Experience | conference = Wonderland Conference (Wonderland 2022) | date = 5 November 2022 | location = Miami, Florida | time = 10:07–10:11, 13:30–14:12, 16:55–17:10, 21:00–21:52 | url = https://wonderlandconference.com/sessions/intentional-design-of-novel-modified-conscious-states/ | archive-url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sr5OOEcHQQ | archive-date = 29 May 2023 | quote = [DiNardo of Mindstate Design Labs:] Ann Shulgin was one of the three original owners of Mindstate Design Labs [...] We also brought on board Josie Kins. Josie was the founder of psychonautwiki.org, effectindex.com, and some of the largest online psychonaut communities. She's devoted her life to looking at and documenting and concretizing and categorizing and defining all of these different psychedelic effects in these various obscure molecules, taking the drug-induced ravings, the fantastic metaphors, and putting them into discernible, discrete categories that are defined and can be used again extending the realm of what can be said. At this point we have over 500 distinct aspects or qualia of the psychedelic experience. [...] So this started with 35 psychedelic drugs assayed across 51 different receptors, transporters, and ion channels. We're now expanding that dataset to 106 sites and adding expanded functional assays and other types of biochemical data. So what we're doing here is having a map of the biology to then put together with that quantified map of subjective human experience. [...] We take this combination molecule approach that we call the primer probe approach. [...]}}</ref> Mindstate Design Labs is a Silicon Valley-backed Y Combinator tech startup.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Bayer2024" /><ref name="Lee2022">{{cite web | last=Lee | first=Yeji Jesse | title=A Y Combinator startup that's creating a new class of psychedelics just raised $11.5 million from big Silicon Valley investors | website=Business Insider | date=10 February 2022 | url=https://www.businessinsider.com/mindstate-design-labs-psychedelics-startup-seed-round-silicon-valley-investors-2022-2 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2023" /> It raised {{US$|11.5 million}} during an initial round of funding in early 2022.<ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Bayer2024" /><ref name="Lee2022" /><ref name="Burkholder2022">{{cite web | last=Burkholder | first=Sophie | title=Mindstate Design Labs raised an $11.5M seed round for psychedelic-inspired therapeutics | website=Technical.ly | date=11 February 2022 | url=https://technical.ly/growth/mindstate-design-labs-seed-round-psychedelics/ | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2023" /> By June 2025, it had raised over {{US$|24 million}}.<ref name="Dunne2025" />

==Drug candidates== Different serotonergic psychedelics have been anecdotally reported to produce widely varying subjective effects, with this thought to be due to differences in their pharmacology.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Nichols2016" /><ref name="Nichols2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Nichols DE | title = Hallucinogens | journal = Pharmacol Ther | volume = 101 | issue = 2 | pages = 131–181 | date = February 2004 | pmid = 14761703 | doi = 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2003.11.002 | url = | quote = [...] One might offer the speculative hypothesis that tryptamine hallucinogens with a significant agonist action at 5-HT1A receptors may elicit subtle qualitative effects that distinguish them from phenethylamine type hallucinogens, a quality that is sometimes anecdotally reported by recreational users. Although Wolbach et al. (1962) have reported that the psychopharmacological effects of psilocybin, LSD, and mescaline were virtually indistinguishable in humans, there have been no controlled studies to compare any of these three classical agents with newer phenethylamine hallucinogens that are more selective for the 5-HT2A/2C receptors. [...]}}</ref><ref name="PiHKAL" /><ref name="TiHKAL" /> Relatedly, Mindstate Design Labs is attempting to develop multitarget psychedelic combinations that reliably produce specific precision-designed and highly tailored altered states of consciousness, including for use in supervised psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy settings.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Liszewski2022" /> Their lead drug candidate is MSD-001 (5-MeO-MiPT; "Moxy"), which is a non-selective serotonin receptor agonist<ref name="Ray2010" /><ref name="RickliMoningHoener2016">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rickli A, Moning OD, Hoener MC, Liechti ME | title = Receptor interaction profiles of novel psychoactive tryptamines compared with classic hallucinogens | journal = Eur Neuropsychopharmacol | volume = 26 | issue = 8 | pages = 1327–1337 | date = August 2016 | pmid = 27216487 | doi = 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2016.05.001 | url = https://psilosybiini.info/paperit/Receptor%20interaction%20profiles%20of%20novel%20psychoactive%20tryptamines%20compared%20with%20classic%20hallucinogens%20%28Rickli%20et%20al.%2C%202016%29.pdf}}</ref><ref name="KozellEshlemanSwanson2023">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kozell LB, Eshleman AJ, Swanson TL, Bloom SH, Wolfrum KM, Schmachtenberg JL, Olson RJ, Janowsky A, Abbas AI | title = Pharmacologic Activity of Substituted Tryptamines at 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)2A Receptor (5-HT2AR), 5-HT2CR, 5-HT1AR, and Serotonin Transporter | journal = J Pharmacol Exp Ther | volume = 385 | issue = 1 | pages = 62–75 | date = April 2023 | pmid = 36669875 | pmc = 10029822 | doi = 10.1124/jpet.122.001454 | url = https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10029822/pdf/jpet.122.001454.pdf}}</ref> and atypical serotonergic psychedelic with relatively mild hallucinogenic effects as well as some MDMA- or entactogen-like effects.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="Liszewski2022" /><ref name="Lee2022" /><ref name="TiHKAL" /> The company intends to use this drug as a neutral base component and sort of "psychedelic tofu" for a series of combinations with other psychedelic as well as non-psychedelic drugs to produce different kinds of experiences.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Dimitropoulos2025">{{cite web | vauthors = Dimitropoulos S | title = Science Has a Powerful New Tool to Unlock the Mysteries of Consciousness—And Even Help You Reach Transcendence | date = 12 June 2025 | website = Popular Mechanics | url = https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a65023922/designer-psychedelics-consciousness-research/ | access-date = 7 August 2025 | quote = Their first proprietary compound, MOXY, currently in a 52-person Phase I trial, is designed to be just that, says DiNardo: "A sort of 'psychedelic tofu,' a drug that allows moderate cognitive flexibility, but isn't likely to cause awe or ego dissolution." In other words, MOXY acts as a neutral base that's mild on its own, but intended to combine with other compounds to produce fine-tuned mental states. }}</ref><ref name="Ovalle2024">{{cite web | last1=Ovalle | first1=David | last2=Beard | first2=McKenzie | title=FDA gives an early nod to psychedelic research | website=The Washington Post | date=5 September 2024 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/05/fda-gives-an-early-nod-psychedelic-research/ | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> They have also referred to this combination strategy as a "primer/probe" approach or method.<ref name="DiNardo2022a" /><ref name="Haigney2024">{{cite podcast | host=Zach Haigney | date=29 November 2024 | title = #36 Dillan DiNardo: Engineering Consciousness with Psychedelics and AI | url=https://www.thetripreport.com/p/36-dillan-dinardo-engineering-consciousness | work=The Trip Report | publisher=Beckley Waves}}</ref><ref name="Ray2016">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ray TS | title = Constructing the ecstasy of MDMA from its component mental organs: Proposing the primer/probe method | journal = Med Hypotheses | volume = 87 | issue = | pages = 48–60 | date = February 2016 | pmid = 26826641 | doi = 10.1016/j.mehy.2015.12.018 | url = }}</ref><ref name="Ray2017">{{citation | author = Thomas S. Ray | title = Mental Organs and the Breadth & Depth of Consciousness | date = 27 June 2017 | url = https://transformpress.com/images/Downloads/Breadth&Depth.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Ray2013">{{cite book | last=Ray | first=Thomas S. | title=Origins of Mind | chapter=Mental Organs and the Origins of Mind | publisher=Springer Netherlands | publication-place=Dordrecht | volume=8 | date=2013 | isbn=978-94-007-5418-8 | doi=10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_16 | chapter-url=https://tomray.me/pubs/OriginsOfMindTeaching.pdf | page=301–326}}</ref>

As of October 2025, MSD-001 is in phase 1 clinical trials for treatment of mental disorders, with one phase 1 trial having been completed.<ref name="AdisInsight-MSD-001">{{cite web | title=MSD 001 | website=AdisInsight | date=17 October 2025 | url=https://adisinsight.springer.com/drugs/800080520 | access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Krol2026" /><ref name="NCT06702332">{{cite web | title=Single Ascending Dose Study of MSD-001 in Healthy Participants - Mindstate Design Labs - ClinicalTrials.gov | website=ClinicalTrials.gov | url=https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06702332 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Krol2026">{{cite conference | vauthors = Krol F | title = Safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of MSD-001 after single dosing in healthy adults: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study | date = 2026 | conference = Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR) 2026 | publisher = OPEN Foundation | url = https://www.icpr-conference.com/poster-presentations#:~:text=Safety%2C%20pharmacokinetics%2C%20and,Fas%20Krol | quote=Background: MSD-001 (5-MeO-MiPT) is an orally bioavailable tryptamine targeting 5-HT1A, 5-HT7, and 5-HT1D receptors, selected to produce mild psychoactive effects. This first-in-human study evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of single doses (0.5-10 mg) in healthy volunteers. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, participants received single doses of MSD-001 or placebo. Subjects were stratified by CYP2D6 status: intermediate/extensive metabolizers (IM/EM) received 0.5-10 mg, and poor metabolizers (PM) received 0.5-3 mg. Safety assessments included AEs, ECGs, labs, and psychiatric evaluations. PK was assessed noncompartmentally. PD measures included subjective scales (RTI, 5D-ASC, VAS), EEG, fMRI, and NeuroCart testing. Results: 47 participants were enrolled (40 IM/EM, 7 PM). MSD-001 was safe and well tolerated, with no serious AEs. Most AEs were mild and dose-related, commonly including visual effects, euphoria, and relaxation. No clinically meaningful cardiovascular or psychiatric effects were observed. MSD-001 was rapidly absorbed (Tmax 1-2 h; t½ ~2-3 h). Exposure increased with dose, plateauing at 6-10 mg. PMs showed ~1.6-1.8× higher exposure and longer half-life than IM/EMs. Dose-dependent PD effects were observed, minimal at 0.5-1 mg and most consistent at 6-10 mg. Effects began within 30 minutes, peaked at 2-3 hours, and resolved by 6 hours. Subjective effects included visual and mood changes without anxiety. EEG showed reduced delta/theta and increased gamma activity, while fMRI and NeuroCart effects were limited. Conclusions: Single doses of MSD-001 up to 10 mg were safe and well tolerated, with predictable PK and dose-related effects influenced by CYP2D6 status.}}</ref> In the study, MSD-001 produced effects including heightened emotions, associative thinking, enhanced imagination, and mild perceptual effects such as brighter colors, but no hallucinations, self-disintegration, oceanic boundlessness, or other overt hallucinogenic effects typical of conventional psychedelic experiences.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Rogers-Coltman2025" /><ref name="Krol2026" /> A second phase 1 trial will evaluate a combination of MSD-001 with another undisclosed drug.<ref name="Liszewski2022" /> This first combination is aimed to create a psychoactive therapeutic that reduces anxiety, increases insight, and enhances aesthetic appreciation.<ref name="Mullin2025" /> Mindstate Design Labs has notably patented a variety of therapeutic combinations producing entactogenic altered states of consciousness.<ref name="Kargbo2024">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kargbo RB | title = The New Frontier in Neurotherapeutics: From Brain Stimulation to Novel Psychotropics | journal = ACS Med Chem Lett | volume = 15 | issue = 7 | pages = 1001–1003 | date = July 2024 | pmid = 39015281 | pmc = 11247625 | doi = 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.4c00264 | url = }}</ref><ref name="US20250177354">{{cite patent | country = US | number = 20250177354 | inventor = Thomas Ray | status = application | title = Therapeutic Combinations, Compositions, and Methods for Designing and Producing Entactogenic Mindstates | pubdate = 5 June 2025 | gdate = | fdate = 9 March 2023 | pridate = 9 March 2023 | assign1 = Mindstate Design Labs | url = https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a0/84/f9/222fbd7e3c8622/US20250177354A1.pdf}}</ref> The specific medical indications of the company's combination therapeutics have not yet been decided, but potential uses include treatment of anxiety disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias, mood disorders like depression, and other mental and behavioral health conditions.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Liszewski2022">{{cite journal | last=Liszewski | first=Kathy | title=Transforming Psychedelics into Approved Medicines: To overcome any lingering stigma attached to psychedelics, drug developers are rigorously optimizing compounds, dosing regimens, and therapeutic settings | journal=Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | volume=42 | issue=10 | date=1 October 2022 | issn=1935-472X | doi=10.1089/gen.42.10.13 | pages=44–46, 48, 49 | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1089/gen.42.10.13 | access-date=4 March 2026 | quote = The therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic compounds can depend on the experiences they induce in patients. To ensure that these experiences are favorable, Mindstate Design Labs focuses on psychedelic compounds that can provide discrete and predictable states of mind. The company develops drugs that are meant to be delivered in a supervised therapy setting, the better to produce acute changes to mood and cognition. [...] "The lead indication is treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder," DiNardo relates. "Following a second Phase I combination study, we plan to quickly expand to a number of additional programs targeting prevalent indications such as depression as well as various orphan indications in mental and behavioral health."| url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Bayer2024" /><ref name="Lee2022" />

5-MeO-MiPT was originally developed by Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin and David Repke and colleagues in 1985.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Ovalle2024" /><ref name="TiHKAL">{{CiteTiHKAL}}</ref><ref name="RepkeGrotjahnShulgin1985">{{cite journal | vauthors = Repke DB, Grotjahn DB, Shulgin AT | title = Psychotomimetic N-methyl-N-isopropyltryptamines. Effects of variation of aromatic oxygen substituents | journal = Journal of Medicinal Chemistry | volume = 28 | issue = 7 | pages = 892–896 | date = July 1985 | pmid = 4009612 | doi = 10.1021/jm00145a007 }}</ref> Shulgin was among the most prolific psychedelic chemists and wrote the books ''PiHKAL'' (''Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved'') and ''TiHKAL'' (''Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved'') documenting the properties and effects of hundreds of psychedelic drugs.<ref name="Power2014">{{cite web | last=Power | first=Mike | title=Alexander Shulgin Obituary | website=The Guardian | date=3 June 2014 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/03/alexander-shulgin | access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="PiHKAL">{{CitePiHKAL}}</ref><ref name="TiHKAL" /> Thomas Ray was a personal friend and collaborator of Shulgin.<ref name="Sterling2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Haigney2024" /><ref name="Austin2024" /> While Shulgin passed away in 2014,<ref name="Power2014" /> his widow and co-author of ''PiHKAL'' and ''TiHKAL'', Ann Shulgin, became the third co-owner of Mindstate Design Labs with its founding, remaining in this role until her own death in 2022.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="DiNardo2022a" /><ref name="Haigney2024" /><ref name="Austin2024" /> One intention of Mindstate Design Labs is to extend Alexander Shulgin's work of studying the effects of different psychedelics, but with novel and more technologically ambitious methods.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Haigney2024" /><ref name="Austin2024" />

==AI platform== Many serotonergic psychedelics are highly promiscuous or non-selective in their pharmacology, acting on many different receptors and other targets, with this polypharmacology thought to result in differences in their subjective effects.<ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Ducharme2024">{{cite web | last=Ducharme | first=Jamie | title=Safer Psychedelic Drugs May Be Coming | website=TIME | date=2 October 2024 | url=https://time.com/7027173/new-psychedelic-drug-companies/ | access-date=4 March 2026 | quote = These drugs are "very effective, but they're scary and they're chaotic and they're unpredictable," says Dillan DiNardo, CEO of psychedelic drug development company Mindstate Design Labs. [...] Mindstate, and plenty of companies like it, think they've found a workaround: what if psychedelics could be tamed and toned down, tweaked to keep their psychological benefits while reducing many of their risks? This approach could, in theory, improve patients' experiences, boost the drugs' efficacy, and make psychedelics more palatable to regulators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [...] To that end, Mindstate Design Labs is working to build drugs that cause psychedelic trips, but selectively. "Psychedelics are very promiscuous molecules," Mindstate CEO DiNardo explains. "They interact with sites all over the brain." Mindstate's goal is to tailor them to cause more targeted effects.Aided by artificial intelligence, the company analyzed troves of data on how different psychedelics affect the brain, including tens of thousands of "trip reports" from drug users. The idea, DiNardo says, is to get granular enough to design medications that alter consciousness in seemingly beneficial ways (like through mystical experiences, altered perceptions of time and space, and feelings of "sacredness") while avoiding effects that don't seem useful (like auditory distortions and loss of control). Through its analysis, Mindstate identified a drug that DiNardo calls "psychedelic tofu"—that is, one that's relatively bland and basic as psychedelics go, but that can be spiced up when paired with compounds that trigger desired effects in the brain. The FDA in early September gave Mindstate the green light to start testing its "tofu" drug; if that proves safe, the company will then begin testing it in combination with other compounds, DiNardo says.}}</ref><ref name="Ray2010" /><ref name="JainGumpperSlocum2025">{{cite journal | vauthors = Jain MK, Gumpper RH, Slocum ST, Schmitz GP, Madsen JS, Tummino TA, Suomivuori CM, Huang XP, Shub L, DiBerto JF, Kim K, DeLeon C, Krumm BE, Fay JF, Keiser M, Hauser AS, Dror RO, Shoichet B, Gloriam DE, Nichols DE, Roth BL | title = The polypharmacology of psychedelics reveals multiple targets for potential therapeutics | journal = Neuron | volume = 113 | issue = 19 | pages = 3129–3142.e9 | date = October 2025 | pmid = 40683247 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.06.012 | url = }}</ref> Mindstate Design Labs has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform based on large language models (LLMs) called Osmanthus in order to map the relationships between the target interactions and psychoactive effects of dozens of psychedelics.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024">{{cite web | vauthors = Meissen A | title = Mindstate Uses AI to Design "Next-Gen" Psychedelics Combined With 5-MeO-MiPT | date = 20 September 2024 | website = Lucid News | url = https://www.lucid.news/mindstate-uses-ai-to-design-next-gen-psychedelics-combined-with-5-meo-mipt/ | access-date = 10 November 2024 }}</ref><ref name="Bayer2024" /><ref name="Dimitropoulos2025"/><ref name="Houser2025">{{cite web | vauthors = Houser K | title = Startups Are Trying to Hack Psychedelic Drugs to Make Them Safer | date = 28 May 2025 | website = Futurism | url = https://futurism.com/neoscope/startups-hacking-psychedelic-drugs-safe | access-date = 7 August 2025 }}</ref><ref name="Kary2022" /> Other research of this kind has also been done by another group led by Danilo Bzdok at McGill University, with Mindstate Design Labs researchers having subsequently collaborated with this group.<ref name="BallentineFriedmanBzdok2022">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ballentine G, Friedman SF, Bzdok D | title = Trips and neurotransmitters: Discovering principled patterns across 6850 hallucinogenic experiences | journal = Science Advances | volume = 8 | issue = 11 | date = March 2022 | pmid = 35294242 | pmc = 8926331 | doi = 10.1126/sciadv.abl6989 | article-number = eabl6989 | bibcode = 2022SciA....8L6989B }}</ref><ref name="BzdokThiemeLevkovskyy2024">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bzdok D, Thieme A, Levkovskyy O, Wren P, Ray T, Reddy S | title = Data science opportunities of large language models for neuroscience and biomedicine | journal = Neuron | volume = 112 | issue = 5 | pages = 698–717 | date = March 2024 | pmid = 38340718 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.01.016 | url = | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="Sparkes2022">{{cite web | last=Sparkes | first=Matthew | title=AI analyses drug users' trip reports to better understand psychedelics | website=New Scientist | date=16 March 2022 | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2312350-ai-analyses-drug-users-trip-reports-to-better-understand-psychedelics/ | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Henderson2022">{{cite web | last=Henderson | first=Trevor J | title=Using AI-Machine Learning to Unravel Psychedelic Effects on Consciousness | website=Lab Manager | date=16 March 2022 | url=https://www.labmanager.com/largest-study-of-psychedelic-drugs-and-how-they-affect-brain-chemistry-27746 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Hamzelou2022">{{cite web | last=Hamzelou | first=Jessica | title=AI could help us to work out what psychedelic drugs to do our brains by analyzing the words used in trip reports | website=MIT Technology Review | date=16 March 2022 | url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/16/1047350/what-do-psychedelic-drugs-do-to-our-brains-ai-could-help-us-find-out/ | access-date=4 March 2026 | quote=Bzdok's approach is similar to that taken by MindState Design Labs, a biotech company aiming to identify drugs that trigger beneficial mental states. The company's ultimate goal is the development of new treatments for mental-health disorders. "I think it's a great paper," says Dillan DiNardo, company CEO. But the company's approach will focus more on individual receptors rather than groups of receptors, he says.}}</ref><ref name="NeuroscienceNews2022">{{cite web | title=Largest Ever Psychedelics Study Maps Changes of Conscious Awareness to Neurotransmitter Systems | website=Neuroscience News | date=16 March 2022 | url=https://neurosciencenews.com/psychedelics-conscious-awareness-20203/ | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Bzdok2022">{{cite web | author=Danilo Bzdok | title=What Big Data Says About Psychedelics | website=Psychology Today | date=30 June 2022 | url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pathways-progress/202206/what-big-data-says-about-psychedelics | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="Tousignant2022">{{cite web | last=Tousignant | first=Brigitte | title=Researchers carry out the largest-ever psychedelics study using natural language processing tools | website=Mila | date=17 March 2022 | url=https://mila.quebec/en/article/researchers-carry-out-the-largest-ever-psychedelics-study-using-natural-language-processing | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref>

Using the Osmanthus platform, Mindstate Design Labs has processed over 70,000{{nbsp}}trip reports from the Internet and scientific literature, representing essentially "every trip report in existence", and developed a catalogue of over 600{{nbsp}}distinct psychedelic effects.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Bayer2024" /><ref name="Dimitropoulos2025" /><ref name="DiNardo2022a" /> In addition, they have correlated these effects with target interactions using data from thousands of receptor interaction assays.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="DiNardo2022a" /> Initially their pharmacological dataset was the Ray (2010) dataset and had 35{{nbsp}}psychedelic drugs assayed across 51{{nbsp}}different receptors and other targets, but they have since expanded this to 106{{nbsp}}sites along with additional functional assays and biochemical data.<ref name="DiNardo2022a" /><ref name="Haigney2024" /><ref name="Ray2010" /> The goals of the preceding efforts are to predict the effects in psychedelic experiences based on pharmacology and to engineer new kinds of psychedelic experiences.<ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="DiNardo2022a" /> This in turn is intended to develop better-tolerated, safer, and more predictable psychedelic therapeutics, as well as to help shed light on the workings of consciousness.<ref name="Mullin2025" /><ref name="Briggs2025" /><ref name="Dunne2025" /><ref name="Ducharme2024" /><ref name="Dimitropoulos2025" />

MSD-001 (5-MeO-MiPT) is said to have been selected for development using Osmanthus.<ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /><ref name="Bayer2024">{{cite web | last=Bayer | first=Max | title=After crunching 70k 'trip reports', Mindstate looks to test first AI-derived psychedelic on humans | website=Fierce Biotech | date=13 March 2024 | url=https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/mindstates-first-ai-derived-psychedelic-heads-clinic | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref><ref name="SchumakerPayneReader2024">{{cite web | vauthors=Schumaker E, Payne D, Reader R | title=The psychedelic AI found | website=Politico | date=18 March 2024 | url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/future-pulse/2024/03/18/the-psychedelic-ai-found-00147510 | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> In addition, the phase 1 clinical trial findings of MSD-001 have been said by the company to be a validation of its AI platform.<ref name="Mullin2025" /> According to DiNardo, Mindstate Design Labs is the first company to take such an AI-based approach to psychedelic drug development.<ref name="MeissenHarrison2024" /> On the other hand, Mindstate Design Labs's use of AI and trip reports has been regarded as controversial by some in the field, for instance being unconventional and remaining yet-to-be-validated.<ref name="Rogers-Coltman2025">{{cite web | last=Rogers-Coltman | first=Will | title=Have a safe trip! New psychedelic that won't scare patients | website=The Standard | date=2 October 2025 | url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/msd001-mindstate-design-labs-psychedelic-therapy-b1250811.html | access-date=4 March 2026}}</ref> In addition, Thomas Ray's ideas, which are foundational to Mindstate Design Lab's scientific approach, have been critiqued by Robin Carhart-Harris.<ref name="Davidson2018">{{cite web | last=Davison | first=Nicola | title=The struggle to turn psychedelics into life-changing treatments | website=WIRED | date=12 May 2018 | url=https://www.wired.com/story/psychedelics-lsd-depression-anxiety-addiction/ | quote=[Robin Carhart-Harris] attended a lecture called “Mental Organs and the Depth and Breadth of Consciousness” by Thomas Ray, a biologist at the University of Oklahoma. [...] When Ray presented his central idea, that “conscious space” is modulated by the brain’s 5-HT7 receptors, Carhart-Harris sat forward. “These are wild extrapolations,” he whispered. [...] In the question-and-answer session, Carhart-Harris’s hand shot up. “Have you plotted the correlation between the affinity of psychedelics for the 5-HT7 receptor and the drug’s potency?” Ray said that he had not. “I think that you should, it’s important.” People fidgeted: this was not a hostile crowd. Afterwards, Carhart-Harris left the conference and stopped in a local café for lunch. He was quiet, almost ruminative. “How can you present such poor science? I think that people should be allowed to speculate. But the people who contribute to the mainstream perception that this research is pseudo-scientific undermine the field.”}}</ref>

==Legal efforts== In January 2022, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposed making 5-MeO-MiPT and several other unscheduled and relatively obscure psychedelic tryptamines Schedule I controlled substances in the country.<ref name="Carpenter2022">{{cite web | last=Carpenter | first=David E. | title=DEA Proposes Adding Five Psychedelic Compounds to Schedule 1 | website=Lucid News - Psychedelics, Consciousness Technology, and the Future of Wellness | date=25 January 2022 | url=https://www.lucid.news/dea-proposes-five-psychedelic-compounds-schedule-1/ | access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2022">{{cite web | author=Psychedelic Alpha | title=Inside the Challenge to DEA's Proposed Scheduling of 5 Psychedelic Tryptamines | website=Psychedelic Alpha | date=29 July 2022 | url=https://psychedelicalpha.com/news/inside-the-challenge-to-deas-proposed-scheduling-of-5-psychedelic-tryptamines | quote=The CEO of preclinical psychedelic biotech Mindstate Design Labs, Dillan DiNardo, expressed similar sentiments when speaking to Psychedelic Alpha. "Biotech companies like Mindstate work, by necessity, with many contract research organisations," he explained. DiNardo, an MBA with a consulting background, teamed up with Tom Ray ¹ to launch Mindstate, which raised $11.5m in February. If the five tryptamines were added to Schedule I, DiNardo told us his company would be forced to reevaluate many of its CRO relationships.}}</ref> This would have created great difficulties in terms of scientific study and potential pharmaceutical development of these drugs for medical use.<ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2022" /> As a result, the move was prominently opposed by the psychedelic community, including by DiNardo and Mindstate Design Labs, along with a large number of other individuals and organizations.<ref name="Jaeger2022">{{cite web | last=Jaeger | first=Kyle | title=DEA Faces Backlash Over Proposed Scheduling Of Five Psychedelic Compounds | website=Marijuana Moment | date=7 February 2022 | url=https://www.marijuanamoment.net/dea-faces-backlash-over-proposed-scheduling-of-five-psychedelic-compounds/ | access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="Kary2022">{{cite web | author = Tiffany Kary | title = Are Hallucinogen Look-Alikes Illegal? DEA Delay Creates Limbo | date = 22 August 2022 | website = bloomberg.com | publisher = Bloomberg | url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-08-22/are-synthetic-hallucinogens-illegal-dea-delay-on-psychedelics-creates-limbo | quote = While hallucinogens have long been associated with altered mental states that distort reality, Dillan DiNardo, chief executive officer of Mindstate Labs, who had also prepared to testify against the DEA's decision, said there's real scientific value in researching them for problems like depression and addiction. Mindstate's specialty is drawing correlations between altered states of consciousness and scientific data. So far it has a database of more than 8,000 reports about psychedelic trips, and biochemical data for roughly 35 drugs, he said.}}</ref><ref name="Martinovic2022">{{cite web | last=Martinovic | first=Jelena | title=Will The DEA Give In As Advocates Revolt Over Proposed Scheduling Of Five Psychedelic Compounds? | website=Benzinga | date=7 February 2022 | url=https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/22/02/25456564/will-the-dea-give-in-as-advocates-revolt-over-proposed-scheduling-of-five-psychedelic-compounds | access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2022" /><ref name="Aragón2024">{{cite web | author=Matthew Aragón | title=Meet Moxy: The Novel Psychedelic the DEA Tried To Ban | website=doubleblindmag.com | url=https://doubleblindmag.com/what-is-moxy/ | date = 9 January 2024 | access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="DiNardo2022b">{{cite web | title=STATEMENT OF DILLAN DINARDO, MBA [In the Matter of Scheduling 4-OH-DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5- MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET, and DiPT] | date = July 2022 | url=https://psychedelicalpha.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022.7.14_DiNardo_Statement.pdf}}</ref> In July 2022, facing significant opposition, the DEA withdrew the proposal to ban the drugs.<ref name="PsychedelicAlpha2022" /><ref name="Aragón2024" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Official website|https://www.mindstate.design/}} * {{LinkedIn page|company/mindstate-design-labs}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sr5OOEcHQQ Mapping the Biological Basis of the Psychedelic Experience - Mindstate Design Labs - YouTube] * [https://schedule.sxsw.com/2025/events/PP149956 AI Models Driving the Next Generation of Psychedelics - Mindstate Design Labs - SXSW Conference]

Category:Artificial intelligence companies Category:Biotechnology companies of the United States Category:Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Category:Psychedelic drug research Category:Psychedelic pharmaceutical companies