New Frontiers Programme Committee
The membership of the New Frontiers Programme Committee is designed to represent an experienced cross-section of the field, including academic researchers, industry scientists, regulators and patient representatives. The committee is responsible for developing the programme of the New Frontiers Meeting, held annually in Nice, France, and for guiding the ongoing discussion the meeting is designed to stimulate.
Gitte Moos Knudsen, Denmark, Chair
Gitte Moos Knudsen is President of ECNP and professor at Dept. Neurology, Rigshospitalet and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is a translational neurobiologist and clinical neurologist with interest in advanced methodological developments that she subsequently applies in her research to address pertinent neurobiological and clinical issues. Her scientific interests include the neurobiology of cerebral neurotransmission and neuropharmacological interventions with particular emphasis on molecular brain imaging. Her lab investigates human brain disease mechanisms and predicts brain responses to categories of neuromodulatory interventions as well as treatment efficacy. For this purpose, they use PET brain scanning to image brain receptors and receptor occupancy, and fMRI to evaluate drug effects on the brain hemodynamic response as well as the brains regional interactions, i.e., functional connectivity.
Guy Goodwin, United Kingdom
Guy Goodwin, DPhil, FMedSci, is currently a research fellow and former WA Handley Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. His research interests are in the treatment of bipolar disorder and the application of neuroscience in understanding the neurobiology of mood disorders, with a focus on developing new treatments. He has been a lead investigator in clinical trials for bipolar affective disorder, including the BALANCE and CEQUEL studies. He works with industry in developing translational models of psychotropic drug action in man. He is a past President of the British Association for Psychopharmacology (2004–2005) and European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and an Emeritus Senior Investigator on the faculty of UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). He is a Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher (top 1% in field).
David Nutt, United Kingdom
David Nutt, DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci, DLaws, is a psychiatrist and the Edmund J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology in the Division of Brain Science, Dept of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. To study the effects of drugs in the brain he uses state of the art techniques such as brain imaging with PET and fMRI plus EEG and MEG. This research output has led to over 500 original research papers outs him in the top 0.1% of researchers in the world. He has also published a similar number of reviews and books chapters, eight government reports on drugs and 35 books, including one for the general public, Drugs: without the hot air, that won the Transmission Prize in 2014. He was previously President of the European Brain Council, the British Association of Psychopharmacology, the British Neuroscience Association and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is currently Founding Chair of DrugScience.org.uk and holds visiting Professorships at the Open University and University of Maastricht. David broadcasts widely to the general public both on radio and television. In 2010 The Times Eureka science magazine voted him one of the 100 most important figures in British Science, and the only psychiatrist in the list. In 2013 he was awarded the John Maddox Prize from Nature/Sense about Science for standing up for science and in 2017 a Doctor of Laws hon causa from the University of Bath.
Tomáš Páleníček, Czech Republic
Tomas Palenicek, MD, PhD. is a head of the Psychedelic Research Centre at National Institute of Mental Health, Czech Republic (NIHM CR, formerly Prague Psychiatric Centre). He is also teaching psychiatry at psychiatric clinic at 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. His background is in translational neuroscience and psychiatry and for last two decades he is mainly involved in psychedelic research and research of novel psychoactive substances. During the last four years he became principle investigator of several clinical trials with psychedelics in healthy subjects as well as in depressed patients. He is a co-founder of the first Czech ketamine clinic Psyon s.r.o and co-founder of a PSYRES (Psychedelic research foundation).
Steffen Thirstrup, The Netherlands
Steffen Thirstrup is the Chief Medical Officer at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Amsterdam, NL. He is also an adjunct professor in pharmacotherapy and the Faculty of Health at Copenhagen University. ST is a medical doctor, a PhD, and is a board-certified specialist in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. On top of 10 years clinical experience, he has worked at the Danish Medicines Agency being involved in EU regulatory processes as member of CHMP and CAT at EMA as well as head of the licensing department. Before becoming CMO at EMA Steffen worked 9 years as a strategic regulatory consultant for pharma industry at NDA Group AB.
Dea Siggaard Stenbæk, Denmark
Dea Siggaard Stenbæk is a licensed clinical psychologist with a PhD in neuroscience. She is Associate Professor in Consciousness Studies at University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, and conducts research from an integrated experimental approach with the aim of contributing to an interdisciplinary understanding of neurobiological and psychological factors in human health. Her research focus is the study of pharmacological manipulations of the serotonin (5-HT) system, where she mainly focuses on effects of the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonist psilocybin. She trains students and clinicians in safe administration of psilocybin and study the effects of ‘extra-pharmacological’ factors, e.g., use of music and psychological setting, on the effects of psilocybin. To understand how 5-HT more broadly is involved in neurocognition in the healthy and disordered brain, she has also studied associations of various 5-HT receptors using PET imaging, i.e., 5-HT2AR, 5-HT4R, 5-HTT and 5-HT1BR with personality and neurocognition.
