Thank you my friend!

Thank you!!

Thank you! We are doing our best to keep doing great science anyway, and to convince the public and the government why it benefits everyone to fund :)

You know what’s weird - the mice get preternaturally STILL on acid! Much less grooming, fidgeting, exploring. Though they may respond very differently to a threat, I’m not sure!

I always summarize the takeaway of this manuscript for folks as “don’t drop acid if you’re pregnant” and they stare at me like “is that seriously a paper??”

Thank you so much!!

Also thankful for fellowship support from @hhmi.org in my PhD and now from @jcchildsfund.bsky.social!

#Neurodevelopment #Psychedelics #ChoroidPlexus #CSF #DevNeuro #Pregnancy #LSD #Preprint

Huge thanks to my co-authors: Christian, Jozi, Cody, and @lehtinenlab.bsky.social, to NIDA DSP, & to phenomenal support @harvardmed.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @hms-nif.bsky.social, @bostonchildrens.bsky.social (esp research controlled substances team!), & @uwmadpharmacy.bsky.social.

TL;DR: Maternal psychedelics reach embryonic CSF within minutes, activate the choroid plexus, alter CSF, and shift cortical development in mice—yielding lasting behavioral changes. A discrete embryonic window is vulnerable via the ChP–CSF axis.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Policy-relevant point: as clinical and non-medical psychedelic use expands, pregnancy is a distinct risk context. We need careful, PK/PD-anchored studies to guide evidence-based recommendations. For now, the simple advice stands: don’t use psychedelics during pregnancy

Limitations to keep in mind: rodent dosing ≠ human exposures; parallel direct effects on embryonic neurons can’t be excluded; we still need to identify the specific CSF proteins that mediate the cortical shift. But the embryo-facing detection mechanism is clear.

We did not see overt maternal toxicity or adverse birth outcomes at these doses. Effects show up in offspring brain composition and behavior. These are standard mouse doses known to produce beneficial effects in other contexts; they are not human-equivalent.

Hehe hi ask me your biology questions anytime

www.hhmi.org/programs/gil... The 2025 Gilliam Fellows | HHMI

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Choroid plexus apocrine secretion shapes CSF proteome during mouse brain development | Nature Neuroscience