The psychedelic renaissance is the mainstream revival of the use and research into the psychedelic medicines (e.g. psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, MDMA, etc.). It is a rapidly expanding genre with great popular and scientific interest given its demonstrated value in the treatment of major global mental health issues, like PTSD and depression, as well as its well-documented use, both historical and current, in the search for spiritual enlightenment. Yet, how the psychedelics are sourced, i.e. where do they come from – whether directly from nature or by chemical synthesis is largely unknown to most users, either professional or recreational. It turns out that sourcing from nature (biosourcing) has led to rampant environmental destruction, species endangerment, and the disruption of the traditional societies that discovered these medicines, due to poor land management, over-tourism, and blackmarketeering. Chemical synthesis of the psychedelics, on the other hand, causes environmental pollution, is not always cost-effective, and does not necessarily create entourage molecules, which are additional psychoactive or psychoactive-promoting chemicals produced by natural sources and important for the psychedelic experience. Given their ever-increasing demand, it is necessary to change the methods by which the psychedelics are created, in order not to inflict further trauma on the natural environment as well as the original societies that first discovered them.In this talk, I will discuss how we can genetically engineer the biosynthetic pathways for many of the psychedelic medicines from their native sources into simple organisms, like yeast cells or readily grown plants, like tomato. By using comparative metabolomics and genetics, the genes involved in the synthesis of the psychedelics are being discovered and can now be expressed heterologously to generate the these medicines in an ecofriendly, sustainable, accessible, and low-cost fashion. If the psychedelic renaissance is to succeed at a global level these medicines must be produced in a manner compatible with the needs of humanity, but with no negative impact upon the species, environment or the traditional societies. Bioengineering using modern molecular biology approaches and even deep learning (AI) algorithms now provides us with the tools to make this happen.
