The Team
From our multi-disciplinary scientific committee, through our team and board, our expertise spans research, policy, technology, management, finance and growth.
David Badcock
CEO
David Badcock has held strategic positions in the substance misuse treatment sector for over 15 years. During this time he has met and worked with thousands of individuals who have turned their lives around to lead healthy, successful lives free from the burden of drug and alcohol addiction.
Anne Schlag
Head of research
Dr Anne Katrin Schlag is Research Manager of DrugScience and Honorary Fellow at Imperial College London. She completed her graduate studies and PhD in Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Following this, she worked as senior lecturer at King’s College London where she was also co-director of AQUAMAX, an EU-wide study investigating public and media perceptions of aquaculture. Her expertise ranges across the spectrum of science and policy making, including risk perception, risk management and risk communication, mental models and social representations.
Anne Katrin has a keen interest in the social, ethical and moral dimensions of national and international drug policies and related regulatory challenges. Her current research focuses on medical cannabis and on the application of the MCDA approach to drug regulation, together with Prof David Nutt and Prof Larry Phillips.
As a multidisciplinary body we pride ourselves in collaboration
Chloe Sakal
Project Twenty21 Director and Clinical Lead
Having gained a BSc in neuroscience, Dr Chloe Sakal went on to study medicine and qualify as a psychiatrist, working in a variety of community and inpatient settings with particular attention to substance misuse. She has a keen interest in the psychopharmacology and the potential for the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs in treating a wide range of psychiatric disorders. She is a study doctor for the UKs first MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trial looking at the safety and tolerability of
its use in the treatment of alcoholism. Alongside this, she also campaigns for and provides progressive harm reduction strategies for recreational drug use, including work within drug testing services in Bristol and at festivals.
James Bunn
Communications Manager
James Bunn is the Communications Manager for Drug Science. After studying Law at university, he became aware of the injustice and inadequacy of the laws that govern drug policy in the UK. He has worked for multiple charities and Not-for-profit organisations in this field, including Release, The Beckley Foundation, The Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Talking Drugs. He is interested in the therapeutic use of psychedelics, harm reduction, and the dissemination of accurate information relating to psychoactive substances.
Pallab Seth
Managing editor Drug Science Journal
Dr Pallab Seth is currently Managing Editor for Drug Science, Policy and Law and Journal of Psychopharmacology with Prof David J Nutt (Editor-in-Chief) in the Division of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College. He joined Imperial in 2006. He has Postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Professor Kenneth J Smith and Professor Sandra E File at King’s College London.
Rayyan Zafar
Honorary Research Assistant
Rayyan Zafar is an Medical Research Council PhD student studying at Imperial College London in the centre for Neuropsychopharmacology under the supervision of Professor David Nutt. His PhD focuses on the application of multi-modal neuroimaging to understand addictions such as gambling and alcoholism. He has a keen interest in psychopharmacology and particularly how addictions could be treated with psychedelics. Additionally, Rayyan’s current research with Drug science focuses on medical cannabis to treat epilepsy, together with Dr Anne Schlag and Prof David Nutt.