International Summit on Psychedelic Therapies for Mental Illness

Speakers

• Dr Adele Lafrance (USA/Canada)

  Clinical Psychologist, Research Scientist, Author

  Dr Adele Lafrance (USA/Canada)

  Clinical Psychologist, Research Scientist, Author

  Ph.D

  Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, and best-selling author. A frequent speaker at professional conferences worldwide, Dr. Lafrance has published extensively in the field of emotion and health, including a clinical manual to support intergenerational family healing published by the American Psychological Association. Dr. Lafrance is a leader in the research and practice of psychedelic medicine, with a focus on ayahuasca, psilocybin and MDMA. She studies mechanisms of change, including spirituality and emotion processing, as well as psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to support the treatment of eating disorders. Dr. Lafrance also has a keen interest in the application of psychedelic medicine in the context of family therapy.

• Dr Gabor Maté CM (Canada)

  Physician and Author

  Dr Gabor Maté CM (Canada)

  Physician and Author

  Gabor Maté (pronunciation: GAH-bor MAH-tay) is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of four books published in twenty-five languages, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. His book on addiction received the Hubert Evans Prize for literary non-fiction. For his groundbreaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His books include In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction; When the Body Says No; The Cost of Hidden Stress; Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder; and (with Gordon Neufeld) Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. To learn more, join his enews list at www.drgabormate.com.

• Johann Hari (UK)

  Journalist and best-selling Author

  Johann Hari (UK)

  Journalist and best-selling Author

  Johann Hari’s first book, Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, is being translated into 27 languages and has been praised by a broad range of people — from Elton John (who said it “will change your life”) to the British Journal of General Practice, who called it “one of the most important texts in recent years.” His second book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, has been translated into 15 languages and is currently being adapted into a major Hollywood film by Oscar-winning director Lee Daniels, and into a non-fiction documentary series.

  Hari graduated from Cambridge University with the highest degree grade, a Double First, in social and political sciences. He grew up in London, with a Swiss father who was a bus driver and a Scottish mother who worked in a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Today, he lives half the year in London, and he spends the other half of the year traveling to research his books.

  Hari has written over the past eight years for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, the Spectator, Le Monde Diplomatique, the Melbourne Age and Politico. He has also appeared on leading TV shows, including HBO’s Realtime With Bill Maher. He was twice named “National Newspaper Journalist of the Year” by Amnesty International. He has also been named “Cultural Commentator of the Year” and “Environmental Commentator of the Year” at the Comment Awards, and “Gay Journalist of the Year” at the Stonewall Awards. Read about what Johann is working on now.

• Kelsey Ramsden

  Co-Founder, CEO + President MINDCURE

  Kelsey Ramsden

  Co-Founder, CEO + President MINDCURE

  With over fifteen years founding, scaling, and operating innovative companies across Canada and the Caribbean, Kelsey Ramsden is globally recognized for building multiple multimillion-dollar businesses. She twice earned the honor of being named Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneur and serves on the Entrepreneurship Council for the University of Western Ontario. Kelsey is a renowned thought leader and published author and holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

  Accomplishments include founding construction firm Belvedere Place Development and residential project-management company Tallus Ridge Development in British Columbia – breaking barriers in traditionally male dominated fields.

  MINDCURE’S mission is to identify and develop products that ease suffering, increase productivity, and enhance mental health. It was born, in part, as a response to the mental health crisis and the need to find effective treatments in areas beyond psychiatry. These include digital therapeutics, neuro-supports, and psychedelics.

  Referring to MINDCURE as the Netflix of Mental Health, Ramsden cites that the company’s digital therapeutics platform iSTRYM has parallel qualities, constantly optimizing and customizing to provide predictive, personalized recommendations.

  “Our tech is more deliberate than others’ and at scale, I believe we will have the largest psychedelic repository of human experience data — which means we can shorten the time it takes to heal.”

  With a psychedelic Renaissance underway, Ramsden finds herself a pioneer on a frontier (again) – and with the most precious of commodities. “We have one mind,” she said. “It’s our greatest asset.”

• Professor David Nutt (UK)

  Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London

  Professor David Nutt (UK)

  Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London

  BA, MB BChir, MRCP, MA, DM, MRCPsych, FRCPsych, FMedSci, FRCP, FSB.

  Renowned researcher, policy advisor and author, Professor David Nutt, is currently Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.

  Under the leadership of Professor Nutt, the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College is one of the world’s foremost psychedelic research laboratories, publishing landmark research on psychedelic therapies and neuroimaging studies of the psychedelic state.

  Professor Nutt has also held many leadership positions in both UK and European academic, scientific and clinical organisations, including presidencies of: the European Brain Council, the British Neuroscience Association, the British Association of Psychopharmacology, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

  He was previously Chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

• John Skerritt

  Deputy Secretary, Health Products Regulation Group- TGA

  John Skerritt

  Deputy Secretary, Health Products Regulation Group- TGA

  Adjunct Professor John Skerritt joined the Australian Department of Health in 2012 as a Deputy Secretary. Apart from being part of the Executive team of Australia’s national Health Department, responsible for the Federal government’s $100 billion investment in health, aged care and sport he also has line responsibility for the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of Drug Control. He was formerly a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Government, Deputy CEO of a Commonwealth Statutory Authority in the Australian overseas aid program, senior research manager in CSIRO and in industry joint venture partnerships. From 2009-2012, he was Chair of the Board of a global technical non-government organisation, and was a board member for two further years. John is an Adjunct Full Professor in medicine, pharmacy and agriculture at three Universities, has a PhD and a University Medal from the University of Sydney, and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Programs of London Business School and of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia (Vic).

• Dr Rick Doblin (USA)

  Executive Director of MAPS

  Dr Rick Doblin (USA)

  Executive Director of MAPS

  Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

  He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment.

  Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist.

  He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife, dog, and empty rooms from three children, one of whom is in college and two have graduated.

• Wade Davis CM (Canada)

  Professor of Anthropology & BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia

  Wade Davis CM (Canada)

  Professor of Anthropology & BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia

  Wade Davis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013, he is currently Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Author of 22 books, including One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top nonfiction prize in the English language, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.

  His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series written and produced for the NGS. Davis, one of 20 Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, is the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, as well as the 2009 Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the 2011 Explorers Medal, the 2012 David Fairchild Medal for botanical exploration, the 2015 Centennial Medal of Harvard University, the 2017 Roy Chapman Andrews Society’s Distinguished Explorer Award, the 2017 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration, and the 2018 Mungo Park Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018 he became an Honorary Citizen of Colombia.

• Dr Robin Carhart-Harris (UK)

  Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London

  Dr Robin Carhart-Harris (UK)

  Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London

  Robin Carhart-Harris moved to Imperial College London in 2008 after obtaining a PhD in Psychopharmacology from the University of Bristol and an MA in Psychoanalysis from Brunel University. At Imperial, he has run and overseen brain imaging studies involving LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and DMT, plus a clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, and a current study comparing psilocybin with escitalopram for major depressive disorder. In 2019, he set-up the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial and he also an honorary position with the University of Oxford. Two of his most influential works include the ‘Entropic Brain Hypothesis’ and ‘REBUS and the anarchic brain’.

• Dr Kate Pate (USA)

  Neurophysiologist, Research Scientist, Director of Research - Heroic Hearts Project

  Dr Kate Pate (USA)

  Neurophysiologist, Research Scientist, Director of Research - Heroic Hearts Project

  Dr. Kate Pate is a neurophysiologist, downhill mountain bike junkie, entrepreneur, and yoga teacher. She is the CEO & Co-Founder of Coruna Medical, a military-specific (combat trauma) medical device company focused on solving the difficult problems facing the injured warfighter, especially as these problems pertain to administering medical care in austere environments. Kate comes from a military family and has always been passionate about finding ways to help military service members and veterans. This passion, coupled with her interest in plant-based medicines and her journey to find ways to heal from her own traumas, led her to cross paths with Heroic Hearts Project (HHP).

  Kate joined HHP as the Director of Research in early 2019 and has been working closely with the team to investigate the ways in which ayahuasca can benefit veterans suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues, and how changes in the gut microbiome following ayahuasca consumption may be correlated with long-term behavioral changes. Kate is also the Director of Research for Unlimited Sciences, a psychedelic research nonprofit that combines the power of data and lived experiences to serve the community, educate the public, and inform common sense practices and policies. Prior to starting Coruna Medical, Dr. Pate was the Principal Scientist and Director of Combat Casualty Care at Roccor, LLC, where she worked since 2015.

  Dr. Pate was formerly the Director of Research and an Assistant Professor of Physiology at Rocky Vista University, College of Osteopathic Medicine (RVU COM). Dr. Pate has been conducting research for nearly 15 years in a variety of different areas, including ocular trauma, burn trauma, neurotrauma, sensor development for health and performance optimization, respiratory neurobiology, cancer and radiation biology, nutrition as medicine, mental health and the gut microbiome, arthritis, and medical education.

• Dr Ben Sessa (UK)

  Psychiatrist, researcher and writer

  Dr Ben Sessa (UK)

  Psychiatrist, researcher and writer

  Dr Ben Sessa trained at UCL, London, graduating in Medicine in 1997.

  He works clinically as an adult and adolescent psychiatrist, and academically in Bristol and Imperial College London University, with an interest in the developmental trajectory from child maltreatment to adult mental health disorders.

  In the last ten years Ben has been a study doctor and a test subject administering and receiving legal doses of pure LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, DMT and Ketamine.

  He is currently conducting the world’s first clinical study using MDMA to treat addiction. Ben is the co-founder and past President of the UK’s premier psychedelic research conference, Breaking Convention.

  He has published dozens of peer reviewed papers on psychedelics and is the Author of several textbooks, including the influential book ‘The Psychedelic Renaissance‘.

• Dr Gabby Agin-Liebes (USA)

  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded postdoctoral fellow at Weill Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF

  Dr Gabby Agin-Liebes (USA)

  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded postdoctoral fellow at Weill Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF

  Gabby Agin-Liebes, PhD is a clinical psychologist with 10 years of experience working as a therapist and investigator on academic trials with psilocybin-assisted therapy at New York University, Yale and UC San Francisco (UCSF). Her research has applied quantitative and qualitative methodologies within psilocybin-assisted and mindful self-compassion-based interventions to treat substance use and trauma-based disorders. She is currently a National Institutes of Health-funded research fellow at UCSF studying novel interventions for treating opioid addiction and chronic pain that target dysregulated emotion regulation and attentional bias processes. She is the lead author on a paper published earlier this year, and featured in several news outlets, which found that psilocybin-therapy led to sustained clinical remission from depression and anxiety in individuals with cancer up to 4.5 years later.

• Dr Reid Robison (USA)

  Psychedelic psychiatrist & researcher

  Dr Reid Robison (USA)

  Psychedelic psychiatrist & researcher

  Reid Robison, MD MBA, is a board-certified psychiatrist with fellowship training in neurodevelopmental genetics & clinical research. He has led over 100 clinical trials in neuropsychiatry and co-directed the molecular genetics laboratory at the University of Utah Department of Psychiatry. Reid is co-founder at Cedar Psychiatry, and serves as Medical Director of Center for Change, a top Eating Disorder treatment program. He is currently the coordinating investigator for the MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy study of Eating Disorders. He was one of the first clinicians to use ketamine off label for depression in Utah and obtained his first grant to study ketamine in 2011. He also led the Utah site for the pivotal IV ketamine study for treatment-resistant depression by Janssen, leading up to the company’s recent FDA-approval of Spravato (esketamine) via breakthrough therapy designation in 2019. Reid supervises & trains the ketamine-assisted psychotherapy practitioners at Cedar Psychiatry’s clinics across Utah, and to date has guided thousands of ketamine therapy journeys and, and hundreds of Spravato dosing sessions. As a social entrepreneur, Reid has built and sold a number of purpose-driven companies including Tute Genomics, a venture-backed personalized medicine startup that was acquired in 2016. Reid is adjunct faculty at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and Utah Valley University, has served on numerous non-profit boards. He founded the Polizzi Free Clinic, to bring mental health to Utah’s uninsured, and most recently co-founded SCPTR, a psychedelic therapy & research non-profit. He currently volunteers as medical support and a psychedelic therapist at Ayahuasca retreats abroad, and often provides medical safety consultations to shamans, therapists and researchers working in psychedelic medicine. Reid continues to share his vision for personalized medicine whenever he gets the chance as you can see in his TEDx talk entitled “The Genome Revolution Begins with You.”

• Professor Matthew Johnson (USA)

  Associate Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research

  Professor Matthew Johnson (USA)

  Associate Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research

  Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor at Johns Hopkins, is an expert on psychedelics, other drugs, and addiction. Working with psychedelics for >15 years, he has published >100 papers with 43 on psychedelics. Matt published psychedelic safety guidelines in 2008, helping to resurrect psychedelic research. He published the first research on psychedelic treatment of tobacco addiction in 2014, and the largest study of psilocybin in treating cancer distress in 2016. His recent psilocybin review recommended placement in Schedule-IV upon medical approval.

  He has personally guided >100 psychedelic sessions. Matt also conducts behavioral economic research on both addiction and sexual risk. He has published studies on nearly all psychoactive drugs classes, and is President of the Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse Division of the American Psychological Association. Matt has been interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNN, Fox Business News, NPR, CBS News, and NBC News.

• Dr Patrycja Slawuta (USA)

  Behavioural Scientist

  Dr Patrycja Slawuta (USA)

  Behavioural Scientist

  Patrycja Slawuta is a New York City based behavioral scientist. She completed her Masters Degree at the University of Warsaw where here research centered around moral emotions of guilt and shame. Her academic work has been presented at various scientific conferences and published in articles and books on social psychology. After a successful academic career, Patrycja founded SelfHackathon, a boutique consultancy that uses cutting edge scientific research for business innovation. With a network of 50+ scientists and domain experts, SelfHackathon helps high performing individuals, teams and companies hack, rewire and upgrade themselves. Her latest initiative is called PsychTech, the seamless fusion of psychology and technology to enhance and accelerate performance and results. As an expert on the complexity, nonlinearity and the messiness of the human nature, Patrycja lectures globally and works with some of the most exciting and disruptive businesses in the world.

• Dr Eli Kotler

  Psychiatrist and Director of Medicine at Malvern Private Hospital

  Dr Eli Kotler

  Psychiatrist and Director of Medicine at Malvern Private Hospital

  MBBS MPM FRANZCP Cert. Old Age Psych. AFRACMA

  Eli is a consultant psychiatrist, holds an academic position at Monash University through the Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, and is the medical director of Malvern Private Hospital, the first addiction hospital in Australia. He is a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD). Clinically, Eli is interested in the deep connections between trauma and addiction and works within a neuro-psychoanalytic framework. Eli has overseen the development of a clinical program for addictions focused on trauma, particularly developmental trauma. This has led to an interest in medication-assisted trauma therapy. Eli worked for many years researching neurodegenerative diseases and was the principle investigator on numerous trials for novel therapeutics. He is now involved in addiction research involving the retraining of neural pathways underlying incentive salience in methamphetamine addiction. Through involvement with Monash University, Eli overseas the addiction rotation for medical students.

• Dr Adam Gazzaley (USA)

  Founder & Executive Director - Neuroscape

  Dr Adam Gazzaley (USA)

  Founder & Executive Director - Neuroscape

  Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. He is now the David Dolby Distinguished Professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder / Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center engaged in technology creation and scientific research.

  He designs and develops novel brain assessment and optimization tools to impact education, wellness, and medicine practices. This novel approach involves the development of custom-designed, closed-loop video games integrated with the latest advancements in software (brain computer interfaces, GPU computing, cloud-based analytics) and hardware (virtual/augmented reality, motion capture, mobile physiological recording devices, transcranial electrical brain stimulation). These technologies are then advanced to rigorous research studies that evaluate their impact on multiple aspects of brain function and physiology. This utilizes a powerful combination of neurophysiological tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

• Shlomi Raz (USA)

  Chairman and CEO - Eleusis

  Shlomi Raz (USA)

  Chairman and CEO - Eleusis

  Shlomi is the chairman and founder of Eleusis. Since founding Eleusis in 2013, Shlomi has overseen the company’s corporate and clinical development effort. Prior to founding Eleusis, Shlomi was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, and began his corporate career at JPMorgan.

  Shlomi holds an MA from New York University and a BS from Georgetown University.

• Vince Polito

  Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University in Sydney

  Vince Polito

  Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University in Sydney

  Vince Polito is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and a former Associate Investigator of the Australian Research Council
  Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders. His research investigates cognitive and neurological changes in altered states of consciousness. He has investigated attentional capacities in
  meditation, psychiatric symptoms of disturbed control, states of flow in expertise, hypnotic suggestions, and body representation alterations in virtual reality. He is particularly interested in how
  beliefs and expectations shape psychedelic experiences and conducted one of the first systematic observational studies of the effects of microdosing in healthy participants.

• Dr Simon Longstaff AO

  Executive Director of The Ethics Centre

  Dr Simon Longstaff AO

  Executive Director of The Ethics Centre

  Dr Simon Longstaff commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre in 1991. He undertook postgraduate studies in Philosophy as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

  Simon is a Fellow of CPA Australia and in June 2016, was appointed an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University – based at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies. Formerly serving as the inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics, Simon serves on a number of boards and committees across a broad spectrum of activities. He was formerly a Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

  Simon’s distinguished career includes being named as one of AFR Boss’ True Leaders for the 21st century. In 2013 Dr Longstaff was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy.”

• Tania de Jong AM

  Founder Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Creative Innovation Global and Mind Medicine Australia

  Tania de Jong AM

  Founder Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Creative Innovation Global and Mind Medicine Australia

  Tania is an acclaimed Australian soprano and one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs and innovators having developed 5 businesses and 3 charities over the past 3 decades.
  She is the Founder of Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Mind Medicine Australia, Creative Innovation Global, Dimension5 co-working hub, MTA Entertainment & Events, Pot-Pourri and The Song Room.

  Tania presents keynote speeches and performs around the world. She has released 10 albums. She works across the public, private, creative and community sectors. Tania’s TED Talk How Singing Together Changes The Brain has sparked international interest.

  She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2008. In 2018 Tania was named in the 100 Women of Influence and the 100 Australian Most Influential Entrepreneurs in Australia.

  Tania’s mission is to change the world, one voice at a time!

• Peter Hunt AM

  Investment Banker & engaged Philanthropist; Founder Women's Community Shelters and Mind Medicine Australia

  Peter Hunt AM

  Investment Banker & engaged Philanthropist; Founder Women's Community Shelters and Mind Medicine Australia

  Peter is Chairman and one of the original Founders of Greenhill Australia, a leading Australian corporate advisory firm that is now part of the global Greenhill advisory group. He has been advising local and multi-national companies and governments in Australia for over 25 years.

  In the NFP sector, Peter is Chairman, Grameen Australia; Chairman, So They Can, and Director and Founder, Women’s Community Shelters. Peter is also a member of the Advisory Councils of Mission Australia and the Centre for Social Impact. Previous roles in the sector have included Chairman, AMP Foundation; Chairman, Australian String Quartet; Trustee, St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation; a Director, Odyssey House and a Director, St James Ethics Centre.

  Peter was made a member of the General Division of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2010 for services to the philanthropic sector.

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