Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail : ekang5(at).jhmi.edu

Schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are severe mental illness characterized by psychosis and mood and cognitive disorder. More specifically, SCZ is characterized by deficit in the perception or expression of reality and commonly SCZ patients manifests auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with dysfunction in social and occupational skills. BP is a condition in which patient experience abnormally manic or hypo manic and abnormally depressed states for a period time in a way that interferes with normal functioning. Sometimes manic episodes lead to psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. It is believed that both genetic and environment factors contribute to these psychiatric disease. Due to candidate gene identification by genetic studies and advance in neuroscience and developmental biology, it is likely that we are stepping more closely to elucidating the etiology of SCZ and BD. To discuss the molecular bases of SCZ and BD, this meeting brought together experts studying on different aspect of SCZ and BD, including genetics, neurobiology, cell and developmental biology, psychiatry, and chemical biology. The topics explored in the meeting was including genetics implicating new genes, loci, and genetic variation in disease; the status of epidemiology; several candidate genes and pathways, and their implication in brain development; new therapeutic approaches based on candidate pathways.

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