Meet the Team

  • JEREMY SKIPPER

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

    I'm Capt Jeremy Skipper (@thelablab) and my modest mission is for UNITy to help us understand the neurobiology of language, inner speech, and consciousness, and their relationship to wellbeing & mentalhealth. Psychedelics, movie-fMRI and experience sampling will help us do this.

  • RAVI DAS

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

    I'm Ravi Das, I'm a psychopharmacologist in @UCL_CPU, @UCLPALS. I aim to develop better treatments for mental health disorders by leveraging neural plasticity in memory systems. I recently demonstrated that ketamine can target problematic drinking memories and reduce alcohol use.

  • TESSA DEKKER

    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

    I’m Tessa Dekker (@TesDekker), I’m a visual neuroscientist studying how our expectations shape how we see the world. In the Unity project she will test this by investigating communication between visual brain regions and other parts of the brain during hallucinations.

  • SUNJEEV KAMBOJ

    PROFESSOR OF TRANSLATIONAL CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

    Hi, I’m Prof Sunjeev Kamboj (@sunjeevk). I’m interested in optimizing psychotherapeutic interventions using psychedelic treatments (and vice versa). I’m a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist by training and will be involved in participant care.

PhD Students

  • GREG COOPER

    I'm Greg Cooper (@GregetarianC) and I’m most interested in the ways that drugs affect how the brain processes time, how the brain can generate a sense of self, and how to apply advancements in machine learning to decode hallucinations from neuroimaging data.

  • AGATHE FAUCHILE

    I’m Agathe Fauchile (@FauchilleAgathe), I’m fascinated by the power of psychedelics to uncover the mysteries of consciousness and heal the mind. I’ve worked on the world’s first clinical trial of DMT for depression (@smallpharma) and am now working on my PhD at @PsychedelicUNIT.

  • SHELAN OFORI

    Hey, I'm Shelan Ofori (@SHELANZAYNAH), I'm in the first year of my PhD. My research is focusing on visualizing neuroplasticity induced by DMT, post a memory destabilization intervention, in hazardous drinkers. When I'm not doing science, you can find me listening to music or watching Vikings.

  • REGAN HARLE

    I’m Regan Harle and I'm part of the LIDo 2020 PhD cohort. I’ll be focusing on the relationship between inner speech and the psychedelic experience, using neuroimaging. My goal is for psychedelics to be viewed for their therapeutic potential.

  • ROSALIND MCALPINE

    I’m Ros (@rosmcalpine), a Wellcome-UCL Mental Health Science PhD student. I did my MRes at @YalePsych and my undergrad at @OxExpPsy. I’m interested in psychedelic mechanisms of action, the extra-pharmacological processes which shape the response to these substances, and the development of effective preparation/integration practices.

  • MARCUS GLENNON

    Hi! I’m Marcus Glennon (@marcus_glennon). I graduated from @YorkPsychology with a degree in psychology and neuroscience, and now I am a PhD student assisting with the neuroimaging side of the UNITy project. I am fascinated by linking the psychology and neurobiology of psychedelics.

  • ORIS SHENYAN

    Hey! I’m Oris Shenyan (@oshenyan), and I am a UCL MSc Cognitive Neuroscience graduate and current LIDo PhD student. I am interested in using neuroimaging and psychedelics to better understand our visual processes.

  • REBECCA HARDING

    I'm Rebecca Harding (@bex_harding), a 1st year PhD student and UG Statistics Demonstrator. I completed my MSc in Translational Neuroscience with @Imperial_PRG. I then became a Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge. As part of the UNITy project, I am exploring how psychedelics can be used to treat addictive disorders, with a particular focus on using fMRI to determine the neural predictors of therapeutic efficacy. 

  • GEORGE BLACKBURNE

    I'm George Blackburne (@rhizoqualia), I'm a PhD student developing neurocomputational frameworks for the multidimensional structure of experience. I like swimming in the sea and wish the water would hold me forever

  • JOANNA KUC

    Joanna is a PhD student working on naturalistic experience sampling using digital apps and wearables. Specifically, she is interested in adapting recent advances in natural language processing to analyse changes in inner speech and develop linguistic/vocal biomarkers of psychedelic effects. This work has implications for understanding how language is connected to sense of self, and how this corresponds to wellbeing. 

Lab Members

  • RACHEL MORSE

    Hi! I’m Rachel Morse, a UCL MSc in Psychological Sciences graduate. I’m passionate about investigating consciousness through psychedelics and alterations to the self, including how changes to representations of the self can influence mental health and wellbeing!

  • ALEX PIOT

    Hi! I'm Alex Piot, a @uclnpp Clinical Neuroscience MSc student and the president of @uclsap. I'm interested in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics from a biochemical and clinical perspective, to treat various neuropsychiatric disorders and better understand consciousness.

  • SHAIMA ALTERKAWI

    I'm Shaima Alterkawi (@saintshimmy), a Saudi-American UCL psychology grad working on participant care within the UNITy project. I'm interested in the study of consciousness through psychedelics and would like to pair this with either forensic psychology or dementia research.

  • HAYA AL-HEJAILAN

    I’m Haya Al-Hejailan (@Hayahuascah), MSc, I’m a positive psychologist from Saudi Arabia. I specialize in psychedelic integration and my main interests include positive clinical psychology, harm reduction, MDMA assisted psychotherapy for cPTSD & BPD and bridging the gap between psychedelic science and the MENA/SWANA region (Middle East & North Africa/ Southwest Asia & North Africa).

  • KATARINA KRAJNOVIC

    Hi there! I am Katarina Krajnović, a Psychology Undergraduate at UCL. I am a mental health hotline volunteer (Shout organisation) and have done previous research on the effects of the pandemic on mental health. I am particularly interested in individual differences, and how various interventions for mental health, including the use of psychedelics in therapeutic settings, apply differently to people.

  • BENTE VISSEL

    Hi! I’m Bente, part of the MSc Brain and Mind Sciences. I’m interested in what psychedelics can tell us about consciousness, mental health and spirituality. After having done my BSc at University College Maastricht, I am now using fMRI to investigate the role of language in consciousness, as mediated by DMT. Beyond that, I love bouldering and water.

  • ALBANE BUISSON

    Hi! I’m Albi, an MSc student in Brain and Mind Sciences. My interest in psychedelics stems from my undergrad dissertation on their therapeutic effects. As part of the UNITy team, I’m investigating linguistic patterns and markers to predict mental health changes using voice recordings. I also volunteer in drug harm reduction, and I love surfing and paragliding in the Alps, where I’m from.

  • MAGDALENA JAGLINSKA

    Hi! I’m Magda (@magdajaglinska), a MSc Cognitive Neuroscience student. I’m interested in using psychedelics to better understand the neural basis of self and its altered states. As part of UNITy I am working with neuroimaging data to investigate the temporal architecture of the brain under psychedelics.

  • VERA RUDI

    I’m Vera, and I’m an MSc student in the Cognitive and Decision Sciences programme at UCL. I am interested in the relationship between psychedelics, mental health, and inner speech. Specifically, I use natural language processing and machine learning models to predict psychedelic treatment outcome and mental health from linguistic features and passive sensing data.

Collaborators

  • EDUARDO SCHENBERG

    Hi, I’m Eduardo Schenberg. I helped run the first LSD neuroimaging study in humans and coordinated the first Brazilian study using MDMA during psychotherapy for the treatment of severe PTSD. I am the founder and President of the Phaneros Institute, a Brazilian non-profit pioneering clinical research on Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. I will be collaborating on the UNITy project and we’ll be implementing the UNITy neuroimaging protocol for PAP in Brazil.

  • eMoodie

    eMoodie is an app created as a research tool for the purpose of studying mental health symptoms, emotions and health factors (such as sleep) in older children, teenagers and young adults. eMoodie Labs is collaborating with UNITy to track our participants in order to understand how psychedelics affect their inner thoughts and how these subsequently relate to their mental health and wellbeing.

  • ANJALI BHAT

    I am a neuroscientist, writer, and stage director. In all capacities, I am drawn to the uncertainties inherent in human interactions. My scientific work bridges theoretical neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, psychiatric genetics, cell biology and neuroimmunology. Central themes include: psychosis, active inference, interoception, self-other distinctions in the mind, immune system and in pregnancy; hallucinations, delusions, psychedelics and conspiracy theories.

UNITy Companion Animals

  • PRUNELLA & RUPERT

    We are Prunella and Rupert, and we are the official UNITy companion animals. Though we do not partake in psychedelics for research purposes, we are aware that we have plenty of endogenous DMT.