Objectives

• To facilitate international, multi-disciplinary collaborative research in psychiatric genetics for the benefit of patients and their families
• To provide a forum for education and nurturing of new researchers and clinicians with an interest in the field
• To help develop the knowledge base for inherited risks of psychiatric disorders to improve counselling of patients and families
• To consider available research technologies to aid selection of the most appropriate technologies for new research
• To discuss analyses of large-scale genetic data, including genome-wide data, in order to inform understanding of the causes and triggers of psychiatric illness
• To discover molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic susceptibilities to major psychiatric disorders
• To discover specific associations between DNA sequence variation and psychiatric disorders, so that new treatments that modify relevant molecular “targets” in these biological pathways can be developed
• To further understanding of the complex relationships between genotype and phenotype in psychiatry

Topics

• Clinical Genetics
  - Schizphrenia
  - Mood Disorders
  - Anxiety Disorders
  - Autism and Chilhood Disorders
  - Substance/Alcohol Abuse
  - Personality Disorders
  - Dementia
  - Suicidal Behaviour
  - Eating Disorders
  - Impulse Control Disorder

• Molecular Genetics
  - Genome-wide association studies (GWAS)
  - Candidate Genes
  - Gene Expression
  - Neurobiology
  - Neurogenesis/Synaptogenesis
  - Neurodegeneration
  - Structural Genomic Variations (CNVs)
  - Cytogenetics
  - Epigenetics

• Gene/Environment Interactions

• Bioinformatics/Population Genetics/Genetic Epidemiology

• Ethical, Philosophical and Social Issues

• Psychiatric Genetic Counselling

• Pharmacogenetics/Pharmacogenomics

• Animal Studies

• Latest Information & Field Overviews
  - Whole Genome Association reports
  - Reports of other international consortia