Canadian biotechnology company Havn Life Sciences now has a fully operational mycology lab and production facility in Jamaica.

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, such as magic mushrooms, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for traditional medicine, food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as toxicity or infection.

By operationalising the lab facility, Havn Life research division, Havn Labs, has begun production of magic mushrooms alongside local partner Hypha Wellness, a Jamaican-based food and psychoactive mushroom producer. This puts the company on track to deliver naturally-derived psilocybin products such as magic mushrooms.

The partners are schedule to handover these naturally-derived psilocybin products to clinical studies and researchers by the fourth quarter of this year. Havn Life Sciences is pursuing standardised extraction of psychoactive compounds and the development of natural health-care products.

Jamaica is an ideal site for the new facility, as it has very favourable regulations for the production of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. At its new facility, Havn Labs will develop optimised, sterile growing criteria for psilocybin mushrooms.

Havn Labs team in Jamaica has been interfacing with local government officials to help advise on many different aspects of mycology.

“We want to build strong partnerships with government, industry, and academics here in Jamaica,” the Havn Life’s chief psychedelic officer Dr Ivan Casselman said. He declared that the Jamaican psilocybin mushroom industry has a lot of potential, so it is important for our team to help support and build a sustainable industry here.

According to Dr Casselman, “over the last three months, we have been meeting with several key stakeholders to develop collaborative relationships. We are very excited to further develop these relationships and help build the Jamaican medicinal psilocybin mushroom industry.”