From motifs to medicines

Sensorium is a clinical-stage biotech developing first-in-class CNS therapies, guided by human biology and nature’s neuroactive patterns, to relieve suffering and restore wellbeing.

Our programs include SENS-01 for anxiety, SENS-03 for epilepsy, and SENS-08 for cognitive dysfunction associated with neurodegenerative disease. SensAI™, our platform integrating expert-curated natural product data, proprietary AI tools, and chemical analysis, identifies patterns across 50+ million data relationships to guide new drug discovery.

NEWS

Lead program in social anxiety disorder in Phase 1 trial

Patterns are matters of perspective

We discern patterns across eons of chemical evolution and millennia of knowledge with a mission to transform mental health and CNS treatment.

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Follow our progress as we propel and expand treatments for CNS disorders in promising new directions.

innovative by nature

Programs

Our pipeline addresses CNS disorders where existing treatments fall short. Each program starts from compounds humans have found effective, understood through modern pharmacology and neuroscience.

SENS-01

Social anxiety disorder

Phase 1

SENS-01 is a novel serotonin modulator with a mechanism that is differentiated from conventional SSRIs and the potential for rapid onset and improved tolerability. Initial development is focused on anxiety, with potential applicability across multiple CNS disorders. The current Phase 1 study is evaluating safety, pharmacokinetics, and target engagement biomarkers.

SENS-03

Drug-resistant epilepsy

LEAD candidate

The SENS-03 program is advancing a proprietary small molecule series targeting mechanisms distinct from currently approved antiseizure medications. Preclinical studies have shown antiseizure activities in multiple models. A development candidate will be nominated in 2H 2026.

SENS-08

Cognitive enhancement

hit selection

SENS-08 is a discovery program advancing proprietary small molecules for cognitive dysfunction associated with neurodegenerative disease, an area with significant unmet medical need and few pharmacologic treatment options. The program originates from a natural product with a long-documented history of human use. SENS-08 is in early preclinical development and supported by a $3.5M NIH award.

Development milestone

Our new therapy for anxiety disorders received IND clearance from the FDA to begin Phase 1 clinical trials.

SENS–01 aims to overcome the limitations of benzodiazepine-like drugs by enabling rapid onset of action, reducing off-target side effects, and avoiding sedation.

Also: Sensorium names Jacob Hooker, PhD as CEO and Simba Gill, PhD as Executive Chair

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Discovery engine

SensAI

SensAI integrates natural compounds, human experience, pharmacology, and neuroscience across 50M+ relationships to identify therapeutic patterns screening-based approaches cannot systematically find.

Humans have lived alongside Earth's chemistry for millions of years. We evolved with these compounds. We've tested them across cultures, generations, and conditions.

Traditional drug discovery treats this as interesting background. Sensorium treats it as signal: systematic evidence encoded in ethnobotanical records, traditional medicine practices, and documented therapeutic use.

Human experience has already identified which compounds work—our work is understanding the patterns that explain why, and what those patterns predict.

SensAI is our discovery engine. It integrates knowledge wells that conventional approaches treat as separate—structuring them into a unified knowledge graph:

Chemistry

Molecular structures, properties, and relationships across natural compound libraries (>700K natural products)

Ethno-pharmacology

Documented traditional uses spanning cultures and millennia—expert-curated evidence of what compounds humans found effective and for what conditions (>100K plants, >250K references)

Pharmacology

Mechanisms of action, receptor binding, metabolic pathways, and physiological effects (>1M bioassays)

Neuroscience

Brain chemistry, neural circuits, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic targets in CNS disorders

The platform doesn't just store this information—it recognizes patterns across it and predicts where therapeutic opportunities exist. Deep knowledge mining with AI agents trained by experts produces bespoke molecular predictions—both by understanding why known remedies work and by identifying white spaces where relationships across the graph suggest therapies might be hiding. We can find therapeutic signals screening-based approaches cannot systematically detect.

The result: three robust programs in three years. Each starts from compounds humans have found effective. Each is developed with full scientific rigor. Anxiety, epilepsy, and cognitive enhancement—all informed by patterns in validated human evidence, all advancing through rigorous clinical development.

Anxiety

SENS–01

Phase 1

Drug-resistant epilepsy

SENS–03

Lead candidate

Alzheimer’s-related cognition

SENS–08

Hit identification

Built for this moment

Leadership

We’re pattern seekers who decode eons of evolution and millennia of human experience, impatient with the status quo in CNS therapies. With tools we built, our leaders and scientists systematically explore nature’s therapeutic motifs to retrieve more people from suffering.

Executives

Jacob Hooker, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Colville Brown, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Evan Gibson, MBA
Chief Business Officer
Alex Simon
Chief of Staff

Scientific founders

Stephen Haggarty, PhD
Co-Founder & Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Jacob Hooker, PhD
Co-Founder & Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
Jerrold Rosenbaum, MD
Co-Founder & Chair Emeritus, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry

Board of Directors

Simba Gill, PhD
Executive Chairman, Former CEO, Evelo Biosciences 
Jacob Hooker, PhD
President & CEO, Sensorium
Ryan Katz
Founding Partner, Route 66 Ventures 
Kevin Lalande, MBA
Founder & Managing Partner, Sante Ventures 
Chaya D. Patel, PhD
Partner, Mission BioCapital
Jerrold Rosenbaum, MD
Co-Founder & Chair Emeritus, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry
Dick Simon, MBA
Co-Founder 

Investors

Scientific and clinical advisors

Huda Akil, PhD
Research Professor, University of Michigan Medical School
Andrew Cutler, MD
CMO, Neuroscience Education Institute
Maurizio Fava, MD
Psychiatrist-In-Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Douglas Feltner, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Neurosterix
Charles Green, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, UT Health Houston
K. Ranga Krishnan, MBBS
Professor Emeritus, Duke University
Sanjay J. Mathew, MD
Department Head, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Texas A&M College of Medicine
Charles B. Nemeroff, MD, PhD
Chair and professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UT Austin Dell Medical School
Raymond Sanchez, MD
Senior Advisor, Bain Capital Life Sciences
Murray B Stein MD, MPH, FRCPC
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health at the University of California San Diego
Jeffrey Strawn, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati

We see the patterns of possibilities

For millennia, humans discovered which natural compounds heal the mind. Sensorium systematically explores these insights alongside chemistry and neuroscience to recover therapeutic opportunities modern discovery abandoned.

We’re translating patterns into precision therapeutics that may enrich human wellbeing and retrieve people from suffering.

Let’s talk

Nearly 85% of approved CNS drugs are derived from nature.

Our SensAI platform integrates 50M+ relationships across natural compounds, human experience, pharmacology, and neuroscience.

We have developed three programs in three years, each with novel MOAs.

SENS–01, our first-in-class precision anxiety therapy, is in the clinic. Novel serotonin modulator for social anxiety; rapid onset, reduced side effects; multi-indication potential (GAD, OCD, PTSD)

SENS–03 is our program for drug-resistant epilepsy with the potential to also reduce co-occurring anxiety; development candidate selection 2H 2026

SENS–08 is our NIH-funded preclinical program for Alzheimer’s-related cognitive impairment

Sensorium Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing brain and mental health treatments that are derived from nature, mechanistically driven, clinically precise, and designed to help people thrive. Its proprietary SensAI™ platform integrates artificial intelligence, chemistry, and neuroscience to mine more than 50 million curated relationships across biology, pharmacology, clinical outcomes, and human experience to unlock broader and derisked starting points for CNS drug discovery. SensAI has produced three differentiated programs in under three years—led by SENS-01, a first-in-class compound under investigation for the treatment of anxiety disorders—and built a robust IP estate extending into the 2040s.

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