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Introducing Tessellate: A Psychedelic Company Interested In ‘Fitting It Together’

On this episode of The Dales Report: Shadd Dales is joined by career brain researchers and husband-wife team behind Tessellate, a project designed to advance development of mental health psychedelic therapeutics. CEO Dr. Rochelle Hines & Chairman & Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Dustin Hines are doing this from their University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) lab, and we’re thrilled to have them on the show to talk about the psychedelic space.

Respectfully, we’ll be using first names to help post readers identify each Hines apart in text. Here’s some highlights from the interview:

The Tessellate Mission: To change The Way We Think About Treating The Brain

Dr. Rochelle Hines explains that Tessellate derives its name from the verb, to create a pattern where shapes fit together perfectly. Like a mosaic, tessellation is how the team thinks of itself and how they think about the brain.

“So many mental health disorders are not just a single neurotransmitter system or failure in a specific receptor,” she says. “There are multiple things that are fitting in together, and we need to address that in order to more effectively treat these disorders.”

Dr. Dustin Hines agrees. “Working in the past with Big Pharma, we saw that there really has been no innovation since the 60s, 70s,” he says. While newer versions of drugs have come out, they are mostly the same molecule as many of the drugs that have come out over 50 years ago.

Depression Is A Complex Disorder, Says Team

It hasn’t been until recently that people have begun to appreciate that there are problems with the serotonin hypothesis for depression, says Rochelle. She explains depression as a complex disease that have several factors, and that there are other alternative pathways and complimentary pathways that might be necessary in order to treat disorders of the brain.

A lot of companies in the pharmaceutical industry have focused on a single neurotransmitter, adds Dustin. And from there, a single compound. Dustin would like to see psychedelics and modulators working together in a more sophisticated, educated modern way.

Tessellate Looking To Initiate A Phase I Clinical Trial

The Tessellate company is preparing to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials on its two lead candidates, Tsl8 108 and Tsl8 303 while advancing preclinical validation.

Rochelle explains that their 100 series compound is a psychedelic and part of a broader family of psychedelics called phenethylamines. The other is a modulator. Tessellate is working on the idea that it might not be 5HT2a; there might need to be some other components added in there.

They believe that this might be a game changer, bringing psychedelics into the clinical forefront. Dustin would like to absolutely get through the traditional FDA filings and bring these to people, and he’s hoping that some of the recently added legislation will help expedite the process, skipping having to prove the compounds safe.

Tune in to the full interview to hear more about the phenethylamine compounds, the dangerous side effects of traditional compounds when it comes to the human heart, and why Tessellate has a unique advantage in clinical trials. This and more, right here on The Dales Report!


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