The New York Hungarian Scientific Society invites you to our event organized to foster a more informed understanding of neuroscience, specifically neuropsychiatric drugs such as MDMA, cannabidiol and psilocybin, and their novel therapeutic approaches in the scientific arena. 

Confirmed presenters:

Peter Gombkoto, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University

 Modern biology, such as the science of living organisms, is a matter of vital importance in the 21st century\

Peter earned his master degree and PhD at the University of Szeged, Faculty of Science and Informatics and Graduate School of Neurosciences. He acquired practice in extracellular single unit recording on anesthetized or behaving animals. He also trained at the University of Niigata in Japan. In 2012, he joined the Zaborszky Lab, at Rutgers University as a postdoctoral fellow focusing on cholinergic system in rodent brain. He has been taking part in software- and hardware development to improve electrophysiological techniques that allows him to design effective tools for both data acquisition and analysis of high-resolution electrophysiology.  

Balázs Szigeti, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow at Icahn Institute for Genomics & Multiscale Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 

Does MDMA use damage the brain?

Balazs studied physics at Imperial College London and earned his PhD in computational neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn Institute of Genomics where he is developing computational tools for whole cell simulations. Besides his interest in computational biology, Balazs has a diverse scientific portfolio: he is involved with the OpenWorm open science initiative to model the nervous system of nematode worms, he collaborates with the Global Drug Survey to study MDMA’s effect on the brain and he leads the Imperial College - Beckley Foundation Self-blinding Microdose project, the first placebo controlled study on LSD microdosing. Balazs will present his work on whether MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy pills, is neurotoxic at recreational and therapeutic dose levels.

Justin Townsend

Partner & Facilitatorat MycoMeditations

Psilocybin Science

Based in NYC, Justin Townsend is an accomplished, award winning entrepreneur and pioneering international business leader with more than two decades of experience building companies from the ground up to profitability both in Europe and the USA across a variety of industries.

Justin has long had an abiding interest and been engaged with the psychedelic sciences and associated healing modalities. He first became involved with the under-ground psychedelic movement in 2002 following his first experience with Ayahuasca. 

Today, Justin is a partner with MycoMeditations, a psilocybin-assisted therapy retreat that works with clients across a variety of mental health issues including treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction and more. MycoMeditations was founded in 2012 and operates in Jamaica where psilocybin is legal.

Lilla Horvath, MD

MSL at Greenwich Biosciences

Advanced cannabidiol science in relationship to epilepsy

Lilla has a Doctor of Medicine degree from Semmelweis University School of Medicine in Hungary.  She has seven years of Neuroscience research experience holding post-doctoral fellowships at Columbia University, and NYU. She currently works as a Neuroscience MSL at Greenwich Biosciences. Greenwich Biosciences is named as one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Genius Companies for their work in advancing cannabidiol science.