Prof David Nutt

Senior Scientific Advisor

Prof. Nutt is Chief Research Officer at Awakn Life Sciences, a biotechnology company, researching, developing, and commercializing therapeutics to treat addiction with a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder. He is a psychiatrist and the Edmund J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology in the Division of Brain Sciences, Dept of Medicine, Imperial College London, where he uses a range of brain imaging techniques to explore the causes of addiction and other psychiatric disorders and to search for new treatments. He completed his medical training at Guy’s Hospital London, trained in neurology to MRCP, before training in psychiatry in Oxford and continuing there as a lecturer and a Wellcome Senior Fellow in Psychiatry. From 1986 to 1986 he was head of the clinical research ward of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the USA. Returning to the UK in 1988 he set up the Psychopharmacology Unit in Bristol University, an interdisciplinary research group spanning the departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology before moving to Imperial College London in December 2008, where he leads a similar group with a particular focus on brain imaging and where he heads the Centre for Psychedelic research .

Prof. Nutt is Founding Chair of the charity Drug Science and PAREA the European association for access to research with psychedelics. Previously, he was President f the European Brain Council and of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the British Neuroscience Association and the British As- sociation of Psychopharmacology. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Psychiatrists and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has published over 500 original research papers, a similar number of reviews and books chapters, eight government reports on drugs and 36 books.

He 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 in 2013 he was awarded the John Maddox Prize from Nature/Sense about Science for standing up for science.


Relevant recent publications:

Walsh Z, Mollaahmetoglu OM, Rootman J, Golsof S, Keeler J, Marsh B, Nutt DJ, Morgan CJAet al., 2021, Ketamine for the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders: comprehensive systematic review, BJPSYCH OPEN, Vol: 8, ISSN: 2056-4724
Nutt D, Hayes A, Fonville L, Zafar R, Palmer EOC, Paterson L, Lingford-Hughes Aet al., 2021, Alcohol and the Brain, NUTRIENTS, Vol: 13

Carhart-Harris R, Blemings A, Nutt DJ, 2021, Psilocybin for Depression, NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, Vol: 385, Pages: 863-864, ISSN: 0028-4793

Orban C, McGonigle J, Flechais RSA, Paterson LM, Elliott R, Erritzoe D, Ersche KD, Murphy A, Nestor LJ, Passetti F, Reed LJ, Ribeiro AS, Smith DG, Suckling J, Taylor EM, Waldman AD, Wing VC, Deakin JFW, Robbins TW, Nutt DJ, Lingford-Hughes ARet al., 2020, Chronic alcohol exposure differentially modulates structural and functional properties of amygdala: A cross-sectional study, ADDICTION BIOLOGY, Vol: 26, ISSN: 1355-6215

Nutt D, Nestor L, Suckling J, Ersche K, Murphy A, McGonigle J, Orban C, Paterson L, Reed L, Taylor E, Flechais R, Smith D, Bullmore E, Elliott R, Deakin B, Rabiner I, Lingford Hughes A, Sahakian B, Robbins T, Nutt Det al., 2020, Disturbances across whole brain networks during reward anticipation in an abstinent addiction population., NeuroImage: Clinical, Vol: 27, Pages: 1-10, ISSN: 2213-1582