Severe Mental Illness: From Genes to Mechanisms to Therapeutics

This two-day in-person symposium on September 16 and 17, 2025, will be chaired by Dr. Steve Hyman, director of the Program in Brain Health at Ó³»­´«Ã½, Dr. Kris Dickson of the Stanley Center at Ó³»­´«Ã½, Dr. Zhanyan Fu of the Stanley Center at Ó³»­´«Ã½, Dr. Evan Macosko of the Stanley Center at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ and Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Elise Robinson of Massachusetts General Hospital and associate director of Human Genetics at the Stanley Center. It will bring together scientists working on the frontiers of genetics, neurobiology, computational psychiatry, and therapeutic development for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and related neuropsychiatric disorders.

The central theme of this symposium revolves around addressing the challenges of turning human genetics findings for severe mental illnesses into biology that will inform and drive the identification of biomarkers and novel therapeutics. In this symposium, speakers will present important new findings that will have an impact on neuropsychiatric research. The program will include keynote speeches from David Altshuler, EVP and CSO of Vertex and Belinda Lennox, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford along with a wide range of other talks, panels, and a poster session.

Register at .

 

 

Agenda

 

Day 1: Tuesday, September 16, 2025

8:00 - 8:45 am
Breakfast
Opening Session
8:45 - 8:55 am
Welcome
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½
Keynote 1
8:55 - 9:05 am
Keynote Introduction
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½
9:05 - 10:05 am
Keynote: Humanizing drug discovery
Vertex
Session 1: Psychiatric genetics and genomics: Progress and challenges
10:05 - 10:10 am
Session Introduction
MGH & Ó³»­´«Ã½
10:10 - 10:40 am
Gene discovery for severe mental illnesses
MGH & Ó³»­´«Ã½
10:40 - 11:55 am
Coffee Break
10:55 - 11:25 am
Functional convergence of common and rare variant risk for neuropsychiatric disease
MGH & Ó³»­´«Ã½
11:25 - 11:55 am
Psychiatric genetics through the lens of neurodevelopmental transcriptomics
University of Pennsylvania
11:55 - 12:25 pm
The biology of adversity
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½
12:25 - 1:25 pm
Lunch
Session 2: Molecular and neural mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders - driving biomarker and therapeutic discovery
1:25 - 1:30 pm
Session Introduction
Ó³»­´«Ã½
1:30 - 2:00 pm
Probing and rescuing dysfunctional brain circuits in depression
Cornell University 
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Brainwide silencing of prion protein by AAV-mediated delivery of an engineered compact epigenetic editor
MIT & Whitehead Institute
2:30 - 3:00 pm
CRISPR-mediated bipolar disorder-associated gene deletion in sleep-regulating mouse neurons
Stanford
3:00 - 3:15 pm
Coffee Break
3:15 - 3:40 pm
Poster Session previews
3:40 - 4:50 pm
Panel discussion on genetic medicine â€“ addressing quantitative gene defects
HMS & Ó³»­´«Ã½

  • Voyager

  • SFARI

  • MIT & Whitehead Institute
  • MIT & Ó³»­´«Ã½
4:50 - 5:00 pm
Closing Remarks
HMS & Ó³»­´«Ã½
Stanley Center Poster Session
5:00 - 7:00 pm
Reception and poster session
McGovern Institute Atrium
 

Day 2: Wednesday, September 17, 2025

8:00 - 8:45 am
Breakfast
Keynote 2
8:45 - 8:55 am
Keynote Introduction
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½
8:55 - 9:55 am
Keynote: Autoimmune psychosis – hope or hype?
University of Oxford
Session 3: Understanding mental illness mechanisms using human model systems and clinical cohorts
9:55 - 10:00 am
Session Introduction
HMS & Ó³»­´«Ã½
10:00 - 10:30 am
Characterizing the clinical impact of genetic variants in psychotic disorders using decades of longitudinal healthcare data
University of Helsinki & Ó³»­´«Ã½
10:30 - 11:00 am
Developmental dysconnectivity in a genetic risk model for psychosis
UCLA
11:00 - 11:20 am
Coffee Break
11:20 - 12:00 pm
Fireside Chat: Humanizing mental illness: the power of stories
with Steve Hyman and
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Lunch
Session 4: Frontiers of mechanistic and therapeutic discovery in the central nervous system
1:00 - 1:05 pm
Session Introduction
Harvard University 
1:05 - 1:35 pm
Decoding cell-type-specific mechanisms in the human brain to guide therapeutic discovery
Icahn School of Medicine
1:35 - 2:05 pm
Animal models of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder based on human genetics
MIT & Ó³»­´«Ã½
2:05 - 2:25 pm
Coffee Break
2:25 - 3:15 pm
Panel discussion â€“ What do we need to get industry re-engaged?
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½

  • Boehringer Ingelheim

  • Johnson & Johnson

  • Seaport Therapeutics
3:15 - 3:30 pm
Closing Remarks
Harvard University & Ó³»­´«Ã½
Seaport Therapeutics