Symposium on the Emerging Genetics and Neurobiology of Severe Mental Illness

This two-day symposium, hosted by Drs. Ed Scolnick of the ӳ��ý'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.