Daniel Trachsel

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Daniel Trachsel
Alma materBurgdorf University of Applied Sciences[1][2]
OccupationMedicinal chemist[1][2]
Years active1993–present[2]
Organization(s)ReseaChem GmbH,[3][4][5] MindShift
Known forWork on psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs
Notable workPsychedelische Chemie Aspekte Psychoaktiver Moleküle (2000); Phenethylamine: von der Struktur zur Funktion (2013)[1][2]
Websitehttps://nachtschatten.ch/autoren/trachsel/

Daniel Trachsel is a Swiss medicinal chemist who is known for working in the pharmaceutical industry and for studying and developing numerous psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs.[6][7][1][2]

Biography

Trachsel studied chemistry at the Burgdorf University of Applied Sciences.[1][2] He became interested in psychoactive drugs in 1993, which coincided with the start of his training as a chemist.[2]

Trachsel published his first book, Psychedelische Chemie Aspekte Psychoaktiver Moleküle (Psychedelic Chemistry: Aspects of Psychoactive Molecules), in 2000, which has undergone several revisions.[1][2] He also published the book Phenethylamine: von der Struktur zur Funktion (Phenethylamines: From Structure to Function), co-authored with David Lehmann and Christoph Enzensperger, in 2013.[1][2][7] According to Hamilton Morris and Nick Cozzi in mid-2023, this book is in the process of being translated into English.[8] It is being translated by the Alexander Shulgin Research Institute (ASRI), with tentative publication by Transform Press, and is also independently being translated by chemist David Carlson.[8]

Trachsel worked as a medicinal chemist at a biopharmaceutical company starting in 2002, including in areas like renin inhibitors and orexin receptor antagonists.[1][2] He is the head of chemistry at ReseaChem GmbH, a chemical research laboratory, in Burgdorf, Switzerland.[3][4][5] In addition to his books and papers, Trachsel has published various patents, including many on psychedelics with Matthias Liechti and others that have been assigned to Mind Medicine (now Definium Therapeutics).[1][9]

Trachsel has developed and published on a large number of novel psychedelic and entactogen compounds, including their psychoactive effects.[6][7][10] This has been in a manner similar to that of the psychedelic chemist Alexander Shulgin, which has caused Trachsel to sometimes be referred to as the "German Shulgin".[6][7] However, unlike Shulgin, Trachsel has publicly distanced himself from self-experimentation.[6] Trachsel has especially studied fluorinated and other phenethylamines, for instance the mescaline derivative trifluoromescaline (TFM), among many others.[11][1][12]

Compounds

Compounds that were first synthesized, tested in humans, and/or reported by Trachsel and colleagues include:[1]

Selected publications

Books

Papers

See also

References

  1. Trachsel, D.; Lehmann, D.; Enzensperger, C. (2013). Phenethylamine: von der Struktur zur Funktion [Phenethylamines: From Structure to Function]. Nachtschatten-Science (in German) (1 ed.). Solothurn: Nachtschatten-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-03788-700-4. OCLC 858805226. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Daniel Trachsel studierte Chemie an der Fachhochschule Burgdorf. Er publizierte Forschungsresultate diverser Serotonin-5-HT2A/C-Re-zeptorliganden und Monoamintransporter-Agenzien und ist Autor des 2000 erstmals erschienenen Buches Psychedelische Chemie. Ab 2002 arbeitete er als Medizinalchemiker in einem biopharmazeutischen Un-ternehmen. Die erfolgreichen Entwicklungen im Bereich der Orexin-Rezeptorantagonisten mündeten in diversen Patentschriften. Ferner entwickelte und untersuchte er zahlreiche fluorierte Phenethylamine. Gegenwärtig arbeitet er an der Quantifizierung und Identifikation von Inhaltsstoffen unterschiedlicher psychoaktiver Strassenproben.
  2. "Daniel Trachsel". Nachtschatten Verlag AG (in German). 16 October 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2026. Daniel Trachsel studierte Chemie an der Fachhochschule Burgdorf. Mit seinem Ausbildungsstart zum Chemielaborant und Chemiker, begann im Jahre 1993 auch sein Interesse für das Forschungsgebiet der psychoaktiven Substanzen. In den vergangenen Jahren publizierte er Forschungsartikel über Serotonin 5-HT2A/C-Rezeptorliganden und Monoamintransporter-Agenzien. Im Jahr 2002 trat er einem biopharmazeutischen Unternehmen bei, wo er zunächst in der Erforschung von Renin-Inhibitoren tätig war, und in den folgenden Jahren als Medizinalchemiker Orexin-Rezeptorantagonisten entwickelte, viele davon mit einer Phenethylamin- und Tryptamin-Grundstruktur. Er ist in diversen Patenten als Miterfinder erwähnt. In einer synergetischen Fachhochschul-Kooperation entwickelte und untersuchte er zahlreiche fluorierte Phenethylamine. Er ist Autor von 'Psychedelische Chemie' und 'Phenethylamine'
  3. Dremencov E, Jezova D (2024). "Editorial: New players on the monoaminergic field: relevance to the mental disorders". Front Pharmacol. 15 1504261. doi:10.3389/fphar.2024.1504261. PMC 11513357. PMID 39469628. [...] ReseaChem GmbH, Burgdorf, Switzerland (Daniel Trachsel) [...]
  4. "Daniel Trachsel". Loop. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
  5. https://derhollaender.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Test-September-2017.pdf "ReseaChem GmbH. Chemical Research Laboratory. Daniel Trachsel, Head of Chemistry" [...] "ReseaChem GmbH, Pestalozzistrasse 16, CH-3400 Burgdorf"
  6. Passie T, Brandt SD (2018). "Self-Experiments with Psychoactive Substances: A Historical Perspective". New Psychoactive Substances (PDF). Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. Vol. 252. pp. 69–110. doi:10.1007/164_2018_177. ISBN 978-3-030-10560-0. PMID 30478735. One follower of Shulgin's research can be seen in the Swiss chemist Daniel Trachsel, who published various contributions on many new psychoactive substances and their effects (Trachsel 2011, 2012; Trachsel et al. 2013). Experimental results about their psychoactive effects are included, but the author distanced himself from any [self-experiments (SEs)] (Trachsel 2011, p. 12).
  7. Hamilton Morris (27 November 2021). "PODCAST 34: A Four Hour Interview with Dr. David E Nichols". The Hamilton Morris Podcast (Podcast). Patreon. Event occurs at 3:43:05–3:44:43. Archived from the original on 24 November 2022. [Morris:] This is another just random question, do—what is this this German guy—his name is like t-r-a-s-c-h-e-l or something? [Nichols:] Daniel Trachsel? [Morris:] Yeah. have you ever spoken with him? [Nichols:] Uh, I had a lot of correspondence. We published a paper together. [Morris:] Yeah. [Nichols:] He has a big thick book in German about fluorine— [Morris:] Oh you wrote—of course—you wrote the introduction to his book. Sorry I forget that you've done absolutely everything and that if I mention anything you had some major involvement with it. [Nichols:] A lot of times that's true. [Morris:] It's completely true. So you wrote—you wrote the introduction to that that book. Which I have, but I have to, you know, do Google translate on each page to attempt to extract any information from it. Is he—is he as amazing as he seems? He seems like the German Shulgin. [Nichols:] Yeah, well, that's probably a good analogy. I mean he's made so many compounds and uh— [Morris:] Is he an academic? [Nichols:] No I don't think so. I think—he works for a company. [Morris:] Hmm. [Nichols:] Yeah. And they make—I think they make uh analytical standards. So he makes a lot of phenethylamines and tryptamines as analytical standards. I actually don't know what the company does. But uh, pretty sure he works for a company. [Morris:] Have you spoken with him about his—because in some of his publications he talks about the human potency of the compounds that he synthesizes. [Nichols:] I think he takes—he takes them and he has friends—I think [...] Shulgin was his model. [Morris:] Very interesting. It's always nice to see that there's still people out there that are— [Nichols:] I haven't seen anything recently from him. Of course that book is a huge huge body of work. [Morris:] Yeah.
  8. Hamilton Morris (25 July 2023). "POD 81: Dr. Carl Hart and Dr. Nicholas Cozzi at the MAPS conference". The Hamilton Morris Podcast (Podcast). Patreon. Event occurs at 1:17:57.
  9. "Daniel Trachsel Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications". Justia Patents Search. 21 June 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2026.
  10. Halberstadt AL, Chatha M, Klein AK, Wallach J, Brandt SD (May 2020). "Correlation between the potency of hallucinogens in the mouse head-twitch response assay and their behavioral and subjective effects in other species". Neuropharmacology. 167 107933. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.107933. PMC 9191653. PMID 31917152. The human potency data used in the analysis (Table 4) were collected from several sources, including clinical trials, results published by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Dr. Daniel Trachsel, as well as from websites such as erowid.com and psychonautwiki.org.
  11. Brandt SD, Passie T (2012). "Research on psychedelic substances". Drug Test Anal. 4 (7–8): 539–542. doi:10.1002/dta.1389. PMID 22767470. Fluorine plays an important role in the area of medicinal chemistry, reflected by the availability of many fluorinated medicinal products. As such it seems prudent to consider the impact of fluorine chemistry on the properties of psychedelic substances. A comprehensive review is provided by Daniel Trachsel who explores the phenethylamine/amphetamine pharmacophore and, in addition to previously unreported data, includes an assessment of the fluorinated trisubstituted 2,4,5-, 2,4,6-, 3,4,5- and 3,4-methylenedioxy series.[25]
  12. Trachsel D (2012). "Fluorine in psychedelic phenethylamines". Drug Test Anal. 4 (7–8): 577–590. doi:10.1002/dta.413. PMID 22374819.
  13. "Psychedelische Chemie [Psychedelic Chemistry] Formats and Editions". WorldCat.org. WorldCat.