Joshua Siegel, MD, PhD

My research aims to elucidate the complex interplay between pharmacology, neurotrophic stimulation, brain networks, mood, and human behavior.

My graduate training gave me a strong background in translational neuroimaging and, in particular, in techniques for precise individual brain connectome mapping, called Precision Functional Mapping. After MD/PhD, I turned my focus to using brain biomarkers to develop and understand novel antidepressants. while in the research residency track, I had the opportunity to work on an ongoing clinical trial of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression.

In 2018 I began to develop a protocol and write grants for what would become Missouri’s first clinical trial of a classic psychedelic, using Precision Functional Mapping to understand the unique acute and persistent effects of psilocybin on brain networks. That study, published in Nature and covered by New York Times, demonstrated that after a high dose of psilocybin, brain activity becomes desynchronized at a massive scale, causing loss of our sense of self, time, and space.

The project also laid the ground work for a program at WashU that continues to conduct human psychedelics research. As a resident and then instructor, I established WashU’s Program in Psychedelics Research, created a graduate course “Mechanisms of Rapid Antidepressants”, and founded the WU Rapid Antidepressants Journal Club.

In 2024, I joined the faculty at NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine and the Nathan Klein Institute for Psychiatric Research. My research portfolio focuses on elucidating the neurobiological mechanism of rapid antidepressants, developing tools to measure brain biomarkers in neuropsychiatry, and understanding human cortico-subcortical circuits. I am thrilled to build a research portfolio that can have a direct impact on bringing to bear new, safe, and effect treatments in psychiatry.