Psychiatric disorders are a major challenge for science, medicine and the society. Mechanisms leading to these disorders are far from understood and the focus of intense research. The study of genetic components can help to identify the pathophysiology. Vast progress has been achieved over the last decades benefiting from the advances in genomics and sequencing technologies, which has revealed the complexity of genetic risk factors. Some of these factors play a role in brain development and have potentially delayed clinical consequences. At the same time the role of environmental factors is strongly supported and gene x environment interactions are now scientifically investigated. One possible level of interaction is the persistence of epigenetic modifications that increase the risk to develop pathological disorders.

The colloquium will gather top scientists investigating these questions from different angles. The speakers will summarize recent advances and confront their views on the contribution of genetic and epigenetic factors to the architecture of psychiatric disorders. Time has also been prioritized for poster presentations and discussion.

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Fiona Francis, Institut du Fer à Moulin (IFM), Paris.

Jean-Antoine Girault, Institut du Fer à Moulin (IFM), Paris.

Stéphane Jamain, Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale (IMRB), Paris.

Sandrine Betuing, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (IBPS), Paris.

Hervé Chneiweiss, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (IBPS), Paris.

François Tronche, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine (IBPS), Paris.

• Christopher Walsh (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) Keynote speaker

• Thomas Bourgeron (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France)

• Elise Robinson (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA)

• Danielle Posthuma (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

• Giuseppe Testa (University of Milan, Italy)

• Elisabeth Binder (Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany)

• Beate St Pourcain (Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands)

• Panagiotis Roussos (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA)

Twenty selected posters will be presented and discussed during the breaks.