Brian Heifets

Brian D. Heifets is a neuroscientist whose work spans preclinical behavioural pharmacology and translational clinical research in mood disorders and psychedelic medicine. His research programme focuses on neural and molecular mechanisms that underlie rapid-acting antidepressant effects and the modulation of affective circuits by psychoactive compounds. Heifets applies animal models, behavioural assays and human clinical trial methodologies to interrogate how neuromodulatory systems shape therapeutic outcomes.

Heifets has been a contributing author on investigations into the role of opioid receptor signalling in ketamine’s antidepressant and antisuicidal effects, real‑world analyses of ketamine treatment outcomes, and methodologically innovative trials (for example, attempts to mask ketamine administration). He is also involved in work examining circuit-level and behavioural responses to MDMA in humans and multi‑institutional preclinical studies of psilocybin’s effects on rodent behaviour. Collectively his publications reflect a translational approach aimed at linking mechanistic neuroscience to clinical practice and trial design in psychedelic and rapid‑acting antidepressant research.