GoingToMeet

This meeting brings together experts in a range of disciplines, including genetics, neurobiology, cell and developmental biology, psychiatry, and chemical biology to discuss the molecular bases of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The time is opportune, since new methods in genetics are identifying plausible candidate genes, which can be studied by sophisticated techniques of cell biology and neuroscience, in both laboratory and clinical settings. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are severe psychiatric syndromes characterized by mood and cognitive disorders and psychosis. Both genetic and environmental factors are believed to contribute. New findings in genetics and neuroscience will likely help redefine the phenotypes and make possible the development of new therapeutic targets. Among the topics to be explored include emerging data from genetics implicating new genes and genetic variation in disease; the current status of the epidemiology, including environmental factors, and boundaries of the disorders; the genetics and neurobiology of several current candidate genes and pathways; and the relevance of advances in neurogenesis, fast-evolving brain genes, and cerebral circuitry development. Finally, prospects for new approaches to therapeutics will be covered. The overall goal of this meeting is to integrate molecular studies across basic and clinical disciplines and facilitate the development of new approaches.