Join Us for an Intellectual Experience!

Date: 30th Aug 2026
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Watsons, Indiranagar

THE COST INCLUDES FOOD AND DRINKS.

About the lecture

Psychedelics are perception alerting substances that have a rich documentary evidence supporting the case for it's use in healing ceremonies across various civilizations. They produce altered perceptual states that produce substantial improvements in mood states. Off late, they are actively investigated for their use in psychiatry to treat various mental disorders and conditions. In this talk, I will discuss what are psychedelics, the social, political, cultural issues surrounding the use of psychedelics and what insights the clinical and preclinical molecular pharmacology studies tell us about how to navigate this landscape.

About the speaker

Balaganesh obtained his PhD in molecular mechanisms of asymmetric cell division in bacteria from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-TVM), Thiruvananthapuram (2018). He is primarily interested in Philosophy of Science, History of Everything, Role of information storage and dissemination in biological systems and enjoys problem solving.

His work is focussed on uncovering the cell type-specific translational signatures evoked by serotonergic psychedelics. During breaks, he can be seen doing trekking, weekend cycling trips to random locations and enjoying local culture and cuisine and appreciating art.