North Las Vegas veteran Gerald Mayes says psilocybin — hallucinogenic fungi also known as “magic mushrooms” — helped him with his post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.

Nevada ranks 51st in access to mental healthcare in the U.S. Despite this grim statistic, Rochelle Hines, who holds a PhD in neuroscience — as does her partner Dustin Hines — sees promise in the state’s burgeoning institutions, such as the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Clark County Children’s Mental Health Consortium, and UNLV. “It’s just figuring out how we can better support these institutions and connect them even more with our communities… and also remove barriers to access,” Rochelle says. “If a patient really wants to try an innovative therapy, you have to look at the barriers that might be preventing them from being able to access that.”

In this episode, Joe interviews the Co-Founders of Tesselate Therapeutics: Dr. Rochelle Hines, Ph.D. (also the CEO and an Associate Professor at UNLV), and Dr. Dustin Hines, Ph.D. (the CSO as well as an Assistant Professor at UNLV).

For decades, mainstream culture has associated psychedelics with impairing the mind rather than improving it. But advocates, researchers and officials are starting to paint a different picture—that substances including magic mushrooms, mescaline, LSD and MDMA can actually help treat serious mental health issues.

Shadd Dales is joined by career brain researchers and husband-wife team behind Tessellate, a project designed to advance development of mental health psychedelic therapeutics.

Repeated use of small quantities of the psychedelic substance psilocybin can improve mood and mental health, a new study suggests.

Married couple now run state-of-the-art laboratory in Las Vegas dedicated to advancing psychedelic therapies.

Meet Dr. Rochelle and Dr. Dustin Hines, the husband and wife team trailblazing the future of mental health therapeutics from their lab located at The University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Both armed with PhD's (University of British Columbia) and extensive post- doctoral training (Tufts University School of Medicine) in neuroscience, Dustin and Rochelle have worked at the interface of academia and industry over their combined 40 plus year careers.