University of Auckland

The University of Auckland’s psychedelic therapy research programme centres on translating psychedelic science into clinically relevant mental health research. Led by Professor Suresh Muthukumaraswamy and colleagues, the programme has focused especially on LSD microdosing, with work examining effects on mood, cognition, brain function, and potential therapeutic use in conditions where current treatments remain inadequate. The university’s page frames this as a broader effort to explore psychedelic therapies for mental health, while university reporting shows the programme was seeded by philanthropic funding, later supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and developed into a recognised research pathway within the institution. A key part of this work has involved microdosing trials conducted in collaboration with MindBio Therapeutics. University reporting states that MindBio provided commercial backing for the LSD microdosing research, including work that moved from healthy volunteer studies toward patient populations such as people with major depressive disorder. More recent Auckland-linked studies also show the programme expanding into other targeted applications, including late stage cancer care and menstrual health related questions, which suggests a research platform that is both mechanistic and clinically exploratory. In that sense, Auckland has become one of the more visible academic centres testing whether repeated low dose LSD can be developed into scalable, lower intensity psychedelic interventions.