Jacob S Aday, PhD
Research Investigator, Anesthesiology
Research Fellow, Internal Medicine
[email protected]

Available to mentor

Jacob S Aday, PhD
Research Investigator
  • About
  • Qualifications
  • Research Overview
  • Recent Publications
  • About

    Jacob S. Aday, Ph.D. is a Research Investigator in the Department of Anesthesiology, with appointments in the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center (CPFRC) as well as the Michigan Psychedelic Center (M-PsyC). He completed his undergraduate and master's degrees in Psychology at Northern Michigan University, where he worked in Dr. Adam Prus’s Neuropsychopharmacology Lab and Dr. Joshua Carlson’s Cognitive Affective Behavior and Integrative Neuroscience (CABIN) Lab. During his doctoral training, Jake was mentored by Drs. Christopher Davoli and Emily Bloesch at Central Michigan University, where they established a productive program of research centered on the emerging field of ‘psychedelic science’. During this time, he was also recruited by Drug Science, the leading independent scientific body on drugs in the UK, to be an honorary research assistant and study under Professor David Nutt. Jake then joined the Translational Psychedelic Research Program (TrPR) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as a postdoctoral researcher in 2021. There, he was mentored by Dr. Joshua Woolley on how to design, implement, and interpret complex psychedelic clinical trials. As a Research Investigator in the Department of Anesthesiology, Dr. Aday is interested in the cognitive and social effects of psychedelics, improving research methodology and safety with the drugs, and examining the potential applications of psychedelic therapy for chronic pain.

    Qualifications
    • PhD
      Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, 2021
    • MS
      Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, 2017
    • BS
      Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, 2015
    Research Overview

    • Psychedelics
    • Social Cognition
    • Emotion
    • Chronic Pain

    Recent Publications See All Publications
    • Journal Article
      Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: where is the psychotherapy research?
      Aday JS, Horton D, Fernandes-Osterhold G, O'Donovan A, Bradley ER, Rosen RC, Woolley JD. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 2024 Aug; 241 (8): 1517 - 1526. DOI:10.1007/s00213-024-06620-x
      PMID: 38782821
    • Additional Scholarship
      Vox: The biggest unknown in psychedelic therapy is not the psychedelics
      Samuel S. 2024 Jun 19;
    • Presentation
      Personal psychedelic use is common among a sample of psychedelic therapists: Implications for research and practice
      Aday J. 2024 Jun;
    • Presentation
      Personal psychedelic use is common among a sample of psychedelic therapists: Implications for research and practice
      Aday J. 2024 Jun;
    • Journal Article
      Attitudes of psychedelic users regarding cost of treatment and non-hallucinogenic alternatives
      Aday J, Boehnke KF, Herberholz M, Kruger DJ. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2024 May 30; DOI:10.1556/2054.2024.00354
    • Journal Article
      Psychedelic Research as a Career Path: A Roundtable Discussion with Early Career Researchers in the Field
      Aday J, Mason NL, Wood BJ, Kramer HM, Ortiz CE, Vest MF, Sagrera C, Healy CJ. Psychedelic Medicine, 2024 Feb; DOI:10.1089/psymed.2023.0053
    • Journal Article
      Editorial: Down the rabbit hole - the psychological and neural mechanisms of psychedelic compounds and their use in treating mental health and medical conditions.
      Peled-Avron L, Aday JS, Kalafateli AL, Hamilton HK, Woolley JD. Front Psychiatry, 2024 15: 1431389 DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1431389
      PMID: 38915850
    • Journal Article
      Effects of Ayahuasca on Gratitude and Relationships with Nature: A Prospective, Naturalistic Study.
      Aday JS, Bloesch EK, Davis AK, Domoff SE, Scherr K, Woolley JD, Davoli CC. J Psychoactive Drugs, 2024 Feb 4; 1 - 10. DOI:10.1080/02791072.2024.2312980
      PMID: 38310541