Jacob Hooker | From motifs to medicines: Harnessing nature’s pharmacopeia for novel CNS therapies | TPM podcast #59

Mental health remains one of medicine's greatest unmet needs. In this episode, Jacob Hooker explains how Sensorium Therapeutics is searching for new psychiatric medicines by combining traditional plant knowledge with cutting-edge drug development. Jacob joins Rafael Rosengarten to discuss how centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge, modern AI, and medicinal chemistry are helping uncover new treatments for anxiety, epilepsy, and cognitive disorders. Along the way, they explore the science behind psychoactive plants, the growing global burden of mental health conditions, and what the future of psychiatric medicine could look like if researchers can move beyond symptom management toward lasting brain health.TPM E59 highlights >⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Episode 59 links:Sensorium Therapeutics Aether in Mind SubstackBook recommendationsRichard Evans Schultes: Plants of the GodsMark J. Plotkin: Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice Wade Davis: One River The Plants of the Gods podcastUpdated trends in the global prevalence and burden of mental disorders, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023Americans for Ibogaine