Olson Earns Neuroscience Award for Psychoplastogens
The Society for Neuroscience honored David E. Olson for research into compounds that regrow neural connections implicated in drug addiction.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Substance Abuse
The Society for Neuroscience awarded David E. Olson the Jacob P. Waletzky Award, recognizing research aimed at understanding drug addiction. Olson, director of the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics, discovered psychoplastogens, compounds that can regrow cortical neurons after a single dose.
Why it matters
Over 48 million Americans have substance use disorder, and the award highlights an emerging approach that targets the prefrontal cortex connections implicated in addiction. Psychedelic compounds have shown early signs of efficacy for multiple substance use disorders, though clinical evidence remains preliminary.
Psychoplastogens regrow cortical neurons after a single dose, while more than 48 million Americans live with substance use disorder. Whether these early preclinical and clinical signs of efficacy hold in larger trials has not yet been established.
The players
David E. Olson
Olson is director of the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics and a co-founder of Delix Therapeutics.
Delix Therapeutics
Delix Therapeutics is a company co-founded by Olson that plans to test one of his psychoplastogen compounds in a phase 2 clinical trial.
The details
Olson's compounds induce neuroplasticity, the regrowth of connections between neurons in the prefrontal cortex, a process linked to withering connections in addiction. He developed non-hallucinogenic alternatives to psychedelics, and he was the first to show that LSD, psilocin, and ibogaine are effective psychoplastogens.
Timeline
2026: Delix Therapeutics is scheduled to begin a phase 2 clinical trial of one of Olson's compounds.
2026: Olson was named a finalist for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.
Health Landscape
Olson's work extends a line of research at the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics that explores psychedelic-derived compounds as treatments. The shift from hallucinogenic psychedelics toward non-hallucinogenic neuroplastic compounds marks a departure toward more clinically manageable therapies for addiction and related conditions.
If psychoplastogen-based treatments reach the market, they could change how substance use disorders are treated for the millions of Americans affected. Any eventual therapy would still need to pass clinical trials before becoming available to patients.
The takeaway
Research on neuroplasticity-inducing compounds could open new options for addiction care, but patients should follow developments from clinical trials rather than assume near-term availability.
Further reading
Explore more in Substance Abuse coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Daily Democrat.
