Organizing Committee, Participants
and Intended Audience:

Conference Organizing Committee

Kenneth Alper MD, Conference Director.
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, New York University School of Medicine.


Dr. Alper's interest in ibogaine has developed from contact with patients in the context of gathering pilot QEEG data on subjects before and after their treatment ibogaine, and the clinical experience witnessing ibogaine treatment first hand. These activities have enabled access to the informal ibogaine treatment scenes of the US and Europe, and extensive networking with the existing academic community involved in ibogaine research that has proved useful in organizing this proposed Conference. At the Conference, Dr. Alper will present a series of 33 case reports of opioid detoxification with ibogaine carried out in the informal non-medical treatment setting (Alper et al, 1999), and is currently submitting a protocol of ibogaine for heroin detoxification in cooperation with the NYU Institutional Review Board, the US FDA, and European regulatory agencies.

The major focus of Dr. Alper's work in drug abuse research has been the ongoing study supported by NIDA since 1992, at Brain Research Laboratories in the NYU Department of Psychiatry, on quantitative neurophysiology in crack cocaine users followed into extended drug free residential treatment. Major findings of this study have included the replication of an initial finding of an abnormal quantitative EEG (QEEG) profile in crack cocaine withdrawal (Alper et al 1990, 1998) , and an apparent relation of baseline QEEG to subsequent treatment outcome (Prichep et al, 1999). Dr. Alper was recently awarded a NIDA grant as a Principal Investigator to develop a virtual atlas of QEEG measures utilizing source localization techniques. The significance of this work relates to the physiologic generation of the EEG, and the methodological need for optimization and parsimony of the QEEG measure set, and the development of more sensitive measures of change or possible "resetting" or "normalization" during long term drug abstinence (Alper 1999).

Stanley Glick Ph.D., MD, Conference Co-Director.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Albany Medical College

Dr. Glick, a recognized authority on brain function and centrally acting drugs, has been the Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at Albany Medical College since 1984. Dr. Glick's research has been funded by NIDA continuously since 1972, and many of his Department faculty are also engaged in NIDA funded research. Dr. Glick's research interests concern the study of the neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis, and development of new pharmacotherapies for opioid and stimulant addiction. Dr. Glick has a distinguished record of funding, publication, and training in research and education in the field of drug abuse.

Robert Cancro MD, Chairman of Sponsoring Academic Department.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine

As the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of the New York University, Dr. Cancro has overseen the development of a number of initiatives related to drug abuse. These include the NIDA Medications Development Center under the Direction of John Rotrosen MD, Ph.D. , the Addiction Psychiatry program under the Direction of Marc Galanter MD, and productive laboratories with NIDA funded researchers including Conference Director Kenneth Alper MD and Leslie Prichep Ph.D. at Brain Research Laboratories, Henry Sershen Ph.D. of the Nathan Kline Institute of Psychiatric Research, and Eric Simon Ph.D. in the Department of Psychiatry.

Scientific Content Advisory Committee:

The role of the Scientific Content Advisory Committee is to provide advice and discussion in formulating the scientific agenda. The Committee was chosen to span representation of academic medicine, social science, private industry, and the FDA NIDA input was also obtained, although not formally included on the Committee. In reality, the distinction of the role of a Content Advisory Committee member versus other presenters was somewhat arbitrary, because input was solicited from all Conference presenters, and there was a significant consensus among the presenters regarding the composition of the program and agenda.

Syed Ali Ph.D
Chief, Neurochemistry Lab, Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, FDA
Dr. Ali has previously organized a satellite meeting of the International Society of Neurochemistry and the American Society of Neurochemistry, entitled Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Drugs of Abuse: Cocaine, Ibogaine, and Substituted Amphetamines, held in Bermuda on July, 1997, which included a section of presentations on ibogaine. Dr. Ali will be presenting new data regarding neurotoxicological mechanisms of ibogaine and will be a valuable contributor to discussion on the issue of neurotoxicity.

Charles Kaplan Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at San Antonio
Dr. Kaplan has studied the informal ibogaine treatment network of the Netherlands for over a decade and will be presenting follow-up data from a cohort of individuals treated by the Coalition of Dutch Addict Self Help (DASH) in the Netherlands in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Phil Skolnick Ph.D.
Research Fellow in Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Co.
A distinguished neuropharmacologist with nearly 500 peer reviewed publications who spent 25 years with the NIH before joining Eli Lilly and Co. as a Research Fellow, Dr., Skolnick will be presenting a review and synthesis of the evidence of the involvement of the NMDA receptor in the mechanism of action of ibogaine.

Conference Participants: Presenters and Moderators.

Michael Baumann Ph.D.
Research Biologist, NIDA Intramural Research Program, Clinical Psychopharmacology Section
Dr. Baumann is an accomplished psychopharmacologic researcher whose interests have included the interactions among serotonergic dopaminergic and neuroendocrine systems in stimulant abuse. At the Conference, he will be presenting new data comparing the neurobiology of ibogaine and noribogaine, and will also be moderating one of the sessions on ibogaine's mechanisms of action.

Zbigniew Binienda D.V.M, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, FDA
Dr. Binienda has been studying the neurophysiologic effects of ibogaine in rats, looking specifically at the relationship of the EEG to dopamine and serotonin concentrations during acute administration (Binienda et al 1998), and comparing the pharmaco-EEG profile of ibogaine to NMDA antagonists (Binienda et al 1997). At the Conference, Dr. Binienda plans on presenting new data extending the period of recording beyond acute administration to look at possible longer lasting residual effects of ibogaine treatment.

Wayne Bowen, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator, Chief, Unit on Reception Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH
Dr. Bowen's work has focused on the activity of ibogaine and related congeners at sigma opioid receptors. This significance of this work relates to evidence suggesting that the neurotoxic effects of ibogaine are mediated by activity at the sigma-2 receptor, and therefore may be minimized by rational design or combination of drugs.

James W. Fernandez, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, and
Renata Fernandez Ph.D., Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.
James and Renata Fernandez work in collaboration with one another and will be presenting on ethnographic research on the use of ibogaine in the context of the Bwiti subculture in Gabon. The book by Dr. James Fernandez, Bwiti: An Ethnography of Religious Imagination in Africa (Fernandez 1982), is a highly regarded reference on the ritual use of Eboga in Africa.

Geerte M. N. Frenken M.F.A.
Research Assistant/Ethnographer, National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI).
A highly experienced former treatment guide, Ms. Frenken worked with the Dutch Addict Self Help (DASH) network in the Netherlands in the late 80's and early 90's. She has made numerous presentations at medically and policy oriented academic meetings on ethnographic and treatment aspects of ibogaine and drug dependence, and currently is working as an ethnographer with injection drug users in an ongoing collaborative study involving the Center for Disease Control and NDRI.

Marc Galanter MD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Galanter is the Director of the program in Addiction Psychiatry in the NYU Department of Psychiatry. He is an experienced NIDA funded researcher/administrator, and author of some well regarded books in the field of psychiatry. Dr. Galanter has a significant record of research on cults and the group dynamics of substance abuse treatment. This area of expertise, involving the dynamic interaction of culture with treatment makes Dr. Galanter a particularly appropriate moderator to the discussion of the section on Ethnographic and Sociological Methods.

Scott Helsley MD, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Helsley has contributed to the literature on ibogaine with a number of investigations utilizing the technique of drug discrimination, and has also investigated the issue of possible neurotoxicity. At the Conference, Dr. Helsley plans to present data on recent drug discrimination studies with ibogaine.

Barbara H. Herman Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator, Clinical Trials Branch, Medications Development Division, NIDA
Dr. Herman is working on the development of non-opioid medications for the treatment drug dependence, which include NMDA antagonists, and will provide an overview of the significance of glutamate transmission in the development of treatment for addiction. She recently organized a highly successful meeting across all of the National Institute of Health entitled The Glutamate Cascade: Common Pathways of Central Nervous System Disease States.
( http://www.nida.nih.gov/Meetings/glutamate.html ).

Reese Jones MD
Professor of Psychiatry, Langly Porter Institute, University of California.
Dr. Jones has a long record of NIDA funded research in drug abuse, and will present a historical perspective on ibogaine. Dr. Jones was present as a consultant at the NIDA Ibogaine Review meeting in March, 1995. At that meeting, Dr. Jones recommended against proceeding with the proposed protocol for a clinical trial of ibogaine for cocaine dependence, and one reason for his inclusion in the Conference is the representation of diversity of point of view and opinion.

Andrej Kastelic MD
Head, Center for Treatment of Drug Addiction, Ministry of Health, Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana
Dr. Kastelic is a renowned international expert on harm reduction, methadone maintenance and the development of clinical programs for addiction. He directs the principal facility for the treatment of drug addiction in Slovenia. At the Conference he will present data obtained from interviews of addicts treated with ibogaine in the informal treatment context in Slovenia.

Herbert Kleber MD
Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
A highly respected author and researcher/administrator, Dr. Kleber is also very familiar with policy issues and their impact on drug abuse treatment and research from the perspective as his experience as the chief medical consultant to the first cabinet level "Drug Czar". Dr. Kleber is a very appropriate choice to moderate the discussion of the section of the Conference entitled "Political, Historical, and Economic Perspectives"

Dan Lieberman
Rhodes University, South Africa.
An ethnobotanist whose research focuses on the Bwiti cult of West Central Africa, D. Lieberman has studied the ritual surrounding the use of Eboga . He will present a description of the sacred African culture around the use of ibogaine and offer his views on the implications of indigenous African context for treatment with ibogaine in conventional clinical environments.

Daniel Luciano MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, New York University School of Medicine
Dr. Luciano is an epileptologist and Director of the Clinical Epilepsy Program at the New York University School of Medicine. He will be reporting on his neurologic observations and evaluation of the EEG in patients undergoing treatment with ibogaine.

Howard S. Lotsof
President, NDA International, New York, NY
Howard Lotsof initially described and patented the use of ibogaine for the treatment of substance dependence. He was the first to bring ibogaine to the attention of NIDA researchers, and provided training in the clinical use of ibogaine to University of Miami investigators for their IND submission to the FDA. Mr. Lotsof's presentation will deal with the application of his experience with the use of ibogaine in the informal treatment context to conventional clinical settings.

Mark Molliver M.D.
Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology, Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Molliver's report on evidence of cerebellar neurotoxicity at supratherapeutic levels raised concerns regarding neurotoxicity, which many believe have now been appropriately addressed. Dr. Molliver will present, and discuss the functional neuroanatomical implications of data on the putative mechanism of neurotoxicity of ibogaine.

Emmanuel S. Onaivi Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
It has been suggested that the apparently persistent ibogaine effects of ibogaine might not be accounted for by a persistent metabolite with a long half-life (Glick et al. 1991, Maisonneuve et al. 1991). Dr. Onaivi's presentation will touch on important conceptual ground, namely the possibility that the apparently persistent ibogaine effects of ibogaine could be explained by changes in second messenger signal transduction.

Linda Parker Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Parker, working in collaboration with Dr. Shepard Siegel of McMaster University, will be presenting the results of studies of ibogaine utilizing the technique of place preference and other forms of conditioned learning. Dr. Parker's work is especially relevant to the view of addiction as a group of disorders involving pathological learning and acquisition of cue driven behaviors.

Piotr Popik MD, Ph.D.
Research Scientist and Chief, Behavioral Division, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Pharmacology,Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland
Dr. Popik, whose research interest in ibogaine began in1993 while working in the laboratory of Dr. Phil Skolnick, has investigated ibogaine's NMDA antagonist properties( Popik et al 1995 ). Dr. Popik has authored review articles on ibogaine's pharmacology which are among the most useful and widely cited references in the field (Popik et al 1995, Popik and Skolnick 1999). At the Conference, he will be presenting research on effects of ibogaine on learning, memory and anxiety.

William Schmidt Ph.D.
President and CEO, Northstar Research and Development.
Dr. Schmidt works in drug development in the private sector as the head of his own consulting firm. At the most recent CPPD meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona in June 1998, Dr. Schmidt organized a successful session on policy and economic issues relating to the development of medications for drug abuse in the private and public sectors, and will be presenting on the impact of these issues in the specific case of ibogaine.

Henry Sershen Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Center for Neurochemistry, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research.
Dr. Sershen has a significant record of published research on the mechanism of action of ibogaine (Sershen et al., 1997) which has emphasized the modulation of dopamine release by serotonin. The possible importance of serotonergic transmission in ibogaine's mechanism of action provides an interesting additional viewpoint to enrich the discussion on ibogaine's mechanism of action.

Shepard Siegel Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Siegel, working in collaboration with Linda Parker Ph.D. of Wilfrid Laurier University, has researched ibogaine utilizing the technique of place preference and other forms of conditioned learning. Dr. Shepard was highly recommended by the Organizing Committee as an extemporaneous speaker, and will moderate Conference Session 4, "Learning, Memory, and Neurophysiology".

Eric Simon Ph.D.
Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine
Dr. Simon is an accomplished researcher in the field of opiate neurobiology. He will be moderating the Conference's first session "Mechanisms of Action I".

Frank Vocci Ph.D.
Director, Medications Development Division, NIDA
Dr. Vocci is regarded as the individual that has been most centrally involved in the ibogaine project within NIDA, and chaired the Ibogaine Review Meeting in March, 1995. Dr. Vocci will moderate the third session on "Efficacy and safety", and will provide an overview of NIDA's role in research on ibogaine.

Intended Audience:

The intended audience for this Conference will include researchers in neuroscience and social sciences, as well as clinicians and other professionals with an interest in addiction. The intended audience includes the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, American Psychiatric Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, College of Problems on Drug Dependence, and National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI).