Frontiers in Major Depression:
Molecular Biology and Clinical Treatment
The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard7 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
8:00am - 6:00pm
Organized by:
Pamela Sklar, M.D., Ph.D.
Edward Scolnick, M.D.
Speakers:
Marc Caron, Duke University Medical Center
Paul Greengard, The Rockefeller University
Stephen Heinemann, The Salk Institute
Rene Hen, Columbia University
Eric Nestler, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Roy Perlis, Harvard Medical School
A. John Rush, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Edward Scolnick, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Jordan Smoller, Harvard Medical School
Li-Huei Tsai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The registration deadline is March 23, 2007. Click HERE to register.
Depression strikes about 17 million American adults each year--more than cancer, AIDS, or coronary heart disease--according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
In the past 13 years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved several new antidepressants to treat this disease, including Wellbutrin (bupropion), Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Effexor (venlafaxine), Serzone (nefazodone), and Remeron (mirtazapine). These medicines represent important refinements on earlier drugs used to treat depression. Nevertheless, recent research underscores that major limitations still exist in the treatment of this illness.
How can insights from neuroscience spawn new directions and new mechanism drugs for treatment of depression? This conference will explore the biological and chemical nature of major depression, the mechanisms by which currently existing medicines work, and leads for new treatments and strategies.
The novel science and therapeutics presented at the Frontiers in Major Depression Conference will be of interest to clinicians, researchers, scientists, and organizations interested in depression research. In keeping with the multi-disciplinary, collaborative atmosphere here at the Broad, we expect that further ideas, understandings, and professional connections made among the conference participants will be fruitful and will lead to greater advancement in the field.
For this reason, we encourage interested parties from all fields to attend this event.
Please see the article, "Gift Launches Center for Psychiatric Research" on the Broad website.
Frontiers in Major Depression is presented by the Broad Institute's Psychiatric Disease Initiative and is sponsored by:
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The Psychiatric Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute The neural mechanisms that underlie devastating psychiatric diseases, such as autism, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia disorders remain nearly a complete mystery. The Broad's Psychiatric Disease Initiative aims to discover the genetic susceptibility factors underlying psychiatric disease by searching for the risk genes for these diseases, developing animal and cellular models, applying imaging techniques to characterize the disorders, and by translating research findings into improved diagnostics and care. The Psychiatric Disease Initiative is headed by Dr. Edward Scolnick, Director, and Dr. Pamela Sklar, Principal Investigator. For more information about the Initiative go to www.broad.mit.edu/psych. |
The Chemical Biology Program at the Broad Institute Scientists increasingly use chemical tools to study dynamic biological processes at the gene, cellular, and organismal level. The Broad Institute's Chemical Biology program applies this approach to biomedical research and the pursuit of new methods to ameliorate disease. Its activities aim to diminish existing and future gaps between biology and medicine. The Chemical Biology Program is headed by Dr. Stuart Schreiber, Director and Principal Investigator. The Haggarty Group, led by Broad Fellow Dr. Stephen Haggarty, studies psychiatric applications of chemical biology. For more information, go to www.broad.harvard.edu/chembio/program. |