Tim DraperFounder and Managing Partne, Draper Associate · I back the ideas that look crazy first

Antidepressants make you feel numb. Psiloc*bin makes you grateful 🍄

21 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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A researcher discusses psilocybin-assisted therapy as an alternative to antidepressants, which often leave patients numb. His team engineered microorganisms to produce psilocybin at scale. He reports that one or two sessions can produce lasting benefits, with side effects limited to mild headaches, and describes his own experience of reduced anxiety and deeper gratitude.

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Today, more people die from suicide than war, terrorism, and natural disasters combined. For 30 years, we haven't seen improvements in mental health treatments. Luckily, effective treatments like psychedelic-assisted therapy with psilocybin are changing people's lives in just 1 or 2 sessions, enhancing their brain's neuroplasticity. From Latin America to the world, we engineered our own microorganisms with biosynthesis and bioinformatics to produce psilocybin, DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT at scale. What are the What are the side effects of psilocybin versus— I know the traditional side effects of antidepressants could be feeling numb or like you're not yourself. Psilocybin does not hit the reward system, so you don't get addicted. In fact, when you do a macrodose of psilocybin, it's not like you want to do it again like in the next week. Your brain is working a lot and you can feel a little headache.
Have you used it yourself? What's— kind of how'd you get into this?
I did use it myself and I've seen amazing progress in terms of anxiety. In terms of creativity and in terms of being grateful for the little things in life.