Symposium on the Emerging Genetics and Neurobiology of Severe Mental Illness
This two-day symposium, hosted by Drs. Ed Scolnick of the Broad Institute's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Li-Huei Tsai of MIT's Picower Institute and Guoping Feng of MIT's McGovern Institute, brought together leading scientists who work on the emerging genetics and biology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and other mental illnesses. These illnesses cause lifelong disability in millions of people—combined, more than 3% of the world’s population is affected. We believe the timing of this symposium is ideal, as recent genetic findings are beginning to point to a new molecular understanding of the underlying pathophysiology as well as the commonalities and differences among these diseases. The four sessions reflect the flow of basic discoveries to new treatments, as the goal of this symposium is to reveal vast opportunities for new treatments for mental illnesses.
Videos of most talks are now available.
Day 1: Genetics
8:30 am - 12:20 pm
Session 1: Genetics of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Illness
Chair: Steven McCarroll
Maria Karayiorgou, Columbia University
Michael O’Donovan, Cardiff University
Shaun Purcell, Broad Institute/MGH
Stephan Ripke, Broad Institute/MGH, Psychiatric GWAS Consortium
Pamela Sklar, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
Daniel Weinberger, NIMH/Lieber Institute
1:30 - 6:00 pm
Session 2: Genetics of Autism, OCD, Depression and Mental Retardation
Chair: Mriganka Sur
Guoping Feng, MIT (McGovern Institute)
Patrick Sullivan, University of North Carolina
Chris Walsh, Children's Hospital, Boston
Ben Neale, Broad Institute, MGH
Evan Eichler, University of Washington
Mario Capecchi, University of Utah
Reception/ Dinner Buffet/ Band in the Atrium of Building 46, MIT
Day 2: Biology and Clinical
8:00 am - 12:20 pm
Session 3: Emerging Biology and Functional Data
Chair: Mark Bear
Elaine Lim, HMS/MGH/Broad Institute - Late-Breaking Topic from Grad Student or Post-Doc
Li-Huei Tsai, MIT (Picower Institute)
Ed Boyden, MIT (Media Lab)
Helen Mayberg, Emory University
Rusty Gage, Salk Institute
Jon Madison, Stanley Center
Alea Mills, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1:30 - 5:25 pm
Session 4: Clinical Applications
Chair: Ed Scolnick
Jeff Conn, Vanderbilt Medical Center
Ed Holson, Stanley Center
Sasha Gragerov, Omeros
Ronald Duman, Yale University
Steve McKnight, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Baltazar Gomez-Mancilla, Novartis
Steve Hyman, Harvard University
