Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Bia Labate, PhD, is a Research Associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg University. As a social anthropologist researching psychoactive substances, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, and religion, Labate is known worldwide for her extensive expertise on the topic of ayahuasca. As the author, co-author, and co-editor of numerous books, papers, and DVDs, Labate is a prolific writer and popular lecturer. At the websites she edits, she has compiled comprehensive collections of materials related to ayahuasca, including numerous documents constellated around the legal and ethical situation of this enigmatic entheogenic brew.

Labate has presented at many conferences and workshops, including the Women's Visionary Congress (2012), MAPS 25th Anniversary Conference (2011), Ayahuasca and the Treatment of Dependency (2011), the European Ayahuasca Research Symposium (2011), Breaking Convention: A Multidisciplinary Convention on Psychedelic Consciousness (2011), Amazonian Shamanism, Psychoactive Plants and Ritual Reinvention (2010), Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century (2010), The Globalization of Ayahuasca: An Amazonian Psychoactive and its Users (2008), the World Psychedelic Forum (2008), Harm Reduction: Dilemmas and Perspectives (2007), Drug Policy Alternatives (2006), Drugs: Controversies and Perspectives (2005), and the First Congress on the Ritual Use of Ayahuasca (1997), which she also organized.

Labate also is a co-founder of the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives (NEIP), and the editor of the NEIP website. She is renowned for her curiosity, her love of learning, and her direct personality.