“What you get with MSD-001 is like a ‘psychedelic tofu’,” says DiNardo. “If you strip out all of the other characteristics and modules that other psychedelics have, you’re left with a compound that doesn’t look very psychedelic, a core access mechanism; this is MSD-001. It’s not just a single drug, but a platform that can create all these other emotions. In this trial’s case, we were trying to upregulate aesthetic perception.”