Prof. Alan Kozikowski
Consultants and Collaborators
Dr. Kozikowski is world renowned for his work in the area of medicinal chemistry designing NCEs for both cancer and CNS disorders. He has over 550 publications and 100 patents. He trained at the University of Michigan, Berkeley, and Harvard, worked for 40+ years as a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, the Mayo Clinic, the Georgetown University Medical Center, and was the Director of the Drug Discovery Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Dr. Kozikowski is a co-founder of Actuate Therapeutics (pancreatic cancer drug in Phase 2), Bright Minds Biosciences (epilepsy drug in Phase 1) and is now setting up StarWise Psychedelics to advance the use of 5-HT2A agonists for neurological and psychiatric disorders. He is also the inventor of the PSMA targeting motif that has been employed in several recently marketed prostate cancer imaging agents, and as well as he did pioneering chemistry and biology on the memory drug Huperzine A that is sold as a nutraceutical agent. He has also invented a host of HDAC6 selective inhibitors such as the tool molecule Tubastatin A that has been used in over 100 published research articles to further probe HDAC biology. One of his licensed HDAC6 inhibitors has recently achieved orphan drug status for use in the treatment of advanced melanoma, and he continues to explore the application of these agents in treating rare and neglected diseases. Dr. Kozikowski currently holds an Adjunct Professor position at the Georgetown University Medical Center while serving as an advisor to several psychedelic medicine companies.