The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation will hold its 25th Annual Mental Health Research Symposium on Friday, October 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Kaufman Music Center, located at 129 W. 67th Street in New York City. The Foundation’s 2013 Outstanding Achievement Prizewinners and select NARSAD Young Investigator Grantees will present their latest discoveries throughout the day. The Symposium is open to the public at no charge. Prior registration is required and a $20 donation is requested.

Symposium moderator Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, M.D., a member of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Scientific Council as well as Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston comments, "At this Symposium, you will hear the future of the nature and the treatment of psychiatric disorders. This is a unique opportunity for the public to hear directly from the world’s leading neuroscience and psychiatric researchers.”

The keynote address, Living a Productive Life, will be presented by Elyn Saks, J.D., Ph.D., at the conclusion of the morning session. Dr. Saks is a bestselling author and professor of law, psychology, psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California. She has achieved these distinctions despite her lifelong battle with schizophrenia and recounts her personal story of recovery in The New York Times bestselling book, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness.

Comments will be given by Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D., who is considered the world's leading authority on bipolar disorder. Dr. Goodwin is a former head of the National Institute of Mental Health and a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University.

Schedule of Presenters:

The morning program features presentations with interactive Q&A:

• Integrated Approaches to Develop Improved Schizophrenia Therapies
  Marc G. Caron, Ph.D., 2013 Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research, Duke University

• Next Generation Neuropsychiatric Diagnostics and Therapeutics
  Kafui Dzirasa, M.D., Ph.D., 2013 co-recipient of the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Prize for Innovative and Promising Schizophrenia Research, Duke University

• Novel Approaches to Identify Functionally Selective Pathways in Schizophrenia and Antipsychotic Action
  Nikhil M. Urs, Ph.D., 2013 co-recipient of the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Prize for Innovative and Promising Schizophrenia Research, Duke University

• Groundbreaking New Technologies to Understand the Brain ― in Illness and in Health
  Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., 2013 Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience, Stanford University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

The afternoon program features presentations as follows:

• What Happens over Time with Youth Who Have Been Diagnosed with Bipolar Spectrum Disorders?
  Boris Birmaher, M.D., 2013 co-recipient of the Colvin Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorders Research, University of Pittsburgh

• Making the Impossible Possible: The Challenges of Practicing Evidence-Based Psychiatry with a Focus on Bipolar Depression
  Andrew A. Nierenberg, M.D., 2013 co-recipient of the Colvin Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorders Research, Harvard Medical School

• The Teen Brain: Insights from Neuroimaging
  Jay N. Giedd, M.D., 2013 Ruane Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Child and Adolescent Research, National Institute of Mental Health

The final presentations will be made by two NARSAD Young Investigator Grantees with a Q&A session conducted by Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D. to follow:

• Specific Modification of the DISC1 Protein as a Biological Predictor of Schizophrenia
  Koko Ishizuka, M.D., Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University

• Therapies for Major Depressive Disorder-Enhancing the Brain's Metabolism
  Paolo Cassano, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital

Register for the Symposium.

Read more about the Symposium in the official press release.