What if you could indulge in your favorite cocktails with no hangover or other ill effects?
That’s one of the goals for researchers working to make one of the world’s oldest vices less harmful. Some are developing hormone shots to help people sober up quickly. Others are working on alcohol substitutes that target receptors in the brain that affect happiness, while dodging those that make imbibers slur and weave.
GABA receptors are the first contact for alcohol in the brain, opening up and relaxing people, [neuropsychopharmacologist David] Nutt says. But alcohol then also floods the brain with other neurotransmitters that can cause nasty aftereffects.
Creating a substance that targets only the GABA receptors allows the brain to then turn on dopamine and serotonin naturally as the pleasures of the evening take off, he says. “It feels like what a glass of wine feels like. It feels relaxing. It makes you a bit more chatty, a bit more socially engaged with people,” he says of the product GABA Labs is developing, dubbed Alcarelle.
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The company is working to raise about £8 million (around $10.3 million), with an aim to complete food-safety testing in the U.S. by mid-2026, where it will launch ahead of European and U.K. markets.
