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Dr. Raymond Chan of the NACN Lab, the Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, led his team members Drs. Ya Wang and Jia Huang, to attend the Australasian Schizophrenia Conference during September 22-24th 2010 in Sydney. The theme of this conference is from molecules to mind, reflecting the broad perspective required to achieve a greater scientific understanding of schizophrenia. It also reflects the quest for improved knowledge of the disease process from molecular deficits to psychological and social dysfunctioning manifested in schizophrenia. During the conference, Dr. Raymond Chan had made an oral presentation on neurological soft signs in schizophrenia based on behavioural and imaging data. Dr. Jia Huang made an oral presentation on roles of neurocognition and pleasure experience impeding on potential rehabilitation for schizophrenia. Dr. Ya Wang presented some of his findings on prospective memory deficits in first-degree nonpsychotic siblings of schizophrenia. Besides Dr. Chan, other international renowned scholars in schizophrenia research, including Profs. Cameron Cater, Shitij Kapur, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, David Penn, and John McGrath were also invited to attend.
After the conference, three of them visited Prof. David Shum of the Griffith University in Brisbane. This trip was to strengthen the existing collaboration between Dr. Chan and Prof. Shum’s team after the signing of the MOU in 2009. During this trip, Drs. Wang and Huang presented their update work in schizophrenia. Prof. Shum’s team and Dr. Chan’s team also started off some detailed discussion and to explore further potential work based on the MOU agreement. It was a fruitful visit to facilitate further collaboration between Prof. Sham and Dr. Chan’s teams.
 Dr. Raymond Chan is presenting his findings on neurological soft signs in schizophrenia  Dr. Jia Huang is illustrating her work to the audience at the conference  A snapshot at the poster booth for Dr. Ya Wang  A photo with Prof. David Shum (centre) at the School of Psychology, Griffith University |
