The second “Endophenotype strategy for psychotic disorders and summit meeting of Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, CAS” was held in Beijing during November 7-8th, 201. The symposium was organized by the Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The symposium was chaired by Dr. Raymond Chan, the deputy director of the Key Laboratory. A group of internationally renowned scholars and clinicians took a part in the symposium, including Profs. Ruben and Raquel Gur from the University of Pennsylvania, Prof. Kelvin Lim from the University of Minnesota, Prof. Bill Honer from the University of British Columbia, Prof. Pak Sham and Dr. Timi Toulopoulou from the University of Hong Kong. Local presenters included Prof. Jurg Ott, Drs. Xinying Li, Chuan Shi, Shuping Tang, and Raymond Chan. The symposium was supported by a fund from the National Science Foundation China and the Key Laboratory of Mental Health.

The main purpose of this symposium is to continue the agenda of last year symposium on the application of endophenotypic strategies for study of schizophrenia in mainland China. In particular, it focused on the extended concept of endophenotype for early identification of schizophrenia and high-risk cases from the community. Endophenotype is the concept first proposed by Prof. Irving Gottesman who has been recognized to be the founder of endophenotype research for mental illness and psychotic disorders. Endophenotype is a biomarker associating with genetic components as well as the clinical symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders. It plays an important role to bridge the gap between molecular genetics and clinical symptoms  of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. The identification of endophenotype is very crucial to the identification of genes that predispose someone to neurospychiatric disorders.

All the invited speakers then made wonderful presentations on their most recent work on endophenotypes for neuropsychiatric disorders and shared their viewpoints on applying endophenotype strategy for neuropsychiatric disorders in mainland China. They also discussed the potential collaborative work with the Key Laboratory of Mental Health of the Institute of Psychology, and acknowledged the need to set up a stronger network with the local clinical settings. Finally, they all agreed this was a very successful symposium and it was the commencement of the collaboration among the speakers. A stronger link should be reinforced and facilitated among the speakers of the symposium in the near future.

All Speakers

 Prof. Ruben Gur is presenting his findings on rapid neurocognitive computerized assessment in large-scale studies.

Prof. Raquel Gur is illustrating the applicatioin of neuroimaging in genetic studies of psychosis.

 Profs. Kelvin Lim and Ruben Gur are discussing some issues on connectivity abnormalities in schizophrenia.

 Prof. Bill Honer is attempting to adopt a new perspective to illustrate the mechanism of illness for schizophrenia.