Dr. Hwei-Hsien Chen, Senior Investigator at the Center for Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan will make a presentation titled "My journey on ketamine study: from anti-addiction to a patent"

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic agent. Recreational use of ketamine is increasing worldwide due to its hallucinogenic, tranquilizing, and dissociative effects. Ketamine use disorder has become a public health problem since it is often comorbid with various psychiatric disorders, such as depression, psychosis, and cognitive impairment. However, ketamine exerts rapid and sustained antidepressant actions. Recently, esketamine, one of the ketamine enantiomers, has been approved for treatment-resistant depression by the FDA. As the NMDA receptor is a critical target for ketamine, the anti-addictive effects of NMDA receptor modulators on ketamine were assessed. In addition, how they interact with ketamine in other aspects, including anesthesia, analgesia, antidepressant, psychotomimetic, and neurocognitive effects, was determined. A method to overcome the limited use of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression was identified, granted a patent, and licensed to a biotech startup. I will share my journey with you as a scientist and an inventor