Book Review: Bioengineering Enlightenment by Jeffery Gerst

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Are psychedelics sustainable? Not always – for example, in order to make MDMA, sassafras trees that take up to 50 years to reach maturity must be cut down, leading to deforestation and habitat loss. 

To use peyote, a button that can take 10 to 30 years to grow must be harvested, and to experience 5-MeO-DMT, secretions are taken from toads. 

These practices of harvesting from the wild have huge ecological costs for both plants and animals, underscoring an urgent need for the issue to be addressed if a sustainable industry is to develop.

In his new book Bioengineering Enlightenment: The Revolutionary Science Behind Sustainable Psychedelic Medicine, Jeffrey Gerst, professor of molecular genetics, shares how bioengineering could make psychedelics sustainable, accessible and ethical.

Sustainable Psychedelics

Bioengineering Enlightenment explores how, in our pursuit to expand awareness and heal personal trauma, we can unknowingly have a negative impact on our environment and indigenous communities – offering an innovative solution through bioengineering.

Gerst’s lab focuses on RNA, studying how RNAs move within cells, why they go to certain places, and what happens when they do not. One of the lab’s key projects is exploring how cells naturally exchange RNAs with one another.

Drawing on this knowledge, the book explores how genetic engineering can be used to identify the genes involved in producing psychedelics and place them into other organisms, like yeast or even plants such as tobacco.

“This approach could create psychedelics in a more sustainable, scalable way than harvesting slow-growing or endangered species such as peyote or iboga, which are currently being over-harvested,” says Gerst.

Psilocybin has already been engineered into yeast with great success; however, it cannot be commercialised due to legal restrictions. 

“Genetic engineering allows us to create psychedelics in an eco-friendly, sustainable and low-cost way, which could make them accessible worldwide rather than only to wealthy people in rich countries,” says Gerst.

Harvesting has a huge environmental impact, and chemical synthesis is also problematic, since it produces pollutants and carcinogens, and most of it is done in underground labs.

Gerst explains that with bioengineering, we can avoid deforestation, species extinction and pollution. 

“We already ask these ethical questions of our food – how it was produced, who benefited and what the environmental cost was – we should be asking the same questions of psychedelics,” says Gerst. 

Bioengineering provides a path towards sustainable, transparent and scalable production.

The book emphasises that bioengineering these compounds would reduce pressure on wild species, limit pollution, and allow local, legal production that benefits communities rather than illegal suppliers. 

“If regulation and legal frameworks evolve, we can scale production responsibly,” says Gerst.

Synthetic vs Natural Compounds: The Entourage Effect

While psychedelics such as psilocybin can be produced synthetically, there is an argument that the full benefits are found in the variety of compounds contained in psychoactive plants or mushrooms. 

The theory – known as the ‘entourage effect’ – from Dr Ethan Russo was initially applied to cannabis.

The theory suggests that the different compounds – such as terpenes and diterpenes – work synergistically with the psychoactive compounds to produce their beneficial effects, and this theory has now expanded into psychedelics.

Gerst highlights how, as opposed to synthetic production, bioengineering can offer potential for maintaining this entourage effect.

“Because we are working with plants and fungi, the engineered organisms can also produce other molecules, such as terpenes, that may contribute to the entourage effect,” says Gerst.

With metabolomics, we can analyse exactly what compounds are being produced, and, as research progresses, we could even enhance the production of beneficial entourage molecules.

This flexibility means we could develop both hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic options – as some people may benefit from the mystical or spiritual aspect of psychedelics, while others may need compounds that avoid intense hallucinations.

Traditional Practice and Modern Science

The book also delves into meditation and other traditional mindfulness tools, exploring how they can be combined with modern science for personal development.

Gerst says that modern life moves too fast for people to absorb, and that speed produces dissonance in us, contributing to poor mental health and disconnection.

“Our brains are essentially Paleolithic in many respects, yet we live inside a highly engineered, non natural environment,” says Gerst. 

That mismatch creates dissatisfaction and mental health pressures.

Meditation, psychedelics and other practices are tools to restore balance. They offer ways to slow the mind, reconnect with others and with nature and reduce the chronic sense of wanting more. 

Used responsibly, they can all be helpful.

Informing and Advocating

Gerst highlights that as mental health conditions continue to increase across the globe, the demand for these substances will increase as they become accessible through different healthcare systems, which we are already seeing in countries such as Canada and Australia. 

He suggests that this increase in demand will have a strain on the biosphere, leaving an urgent demand to develop new sources for psychedelics. 

Bioengineering Enlightenment has been written as a form of advocacy, highlighting these issues, helping readers understand where their psychedelics come from.

“As a biologist I can tell the story through the lens of biology, which I hope will make my argument compelling and practical,” says Gerst.

Ultimately I want the conversation to move beyond hobbyist interest and reach a broader public so that access to therapeutic uses is fair and sustainable, rather than restricted to wealthy people in rich countries.

Bioengineering Enlightenment aims to encourage responsible, informed use and to highlight alternatives to harmful drugs like opiates.

One theme I stress is that we should treat psychedelics like any other important resource: know where they come from, understand the costs and benefits, and build sustainable systems.

There are multiple problems with current sourcing. Wild harvesting destroys habitats and can drive species toward extinction, chemical synthesis pollutes and is often carried out in underground labs. 

Bioengineering offers an alternative by putting the biosynthetic genes for psychedelic compounds into easy to grow organisms such as yeast or common plants.

Bioengineering Enlightenment is now available on Amazon.

Stephanie Price | Community Blogger at Chemical Collective

Stephanie is one of our community bloggers here at Chemical Collective. If you’re interested in joining our blogging team and getting paid to write about subjects you’re passionate about, please reach out to Sam via email at samwoolfe@gmail.com