Program Committee: Pan-Asia Symposium on Genetics of Brain Disorders

Steven E. Hyman, M.D., is the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and a core institute member of the Broad Institute, where he directs the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. From 2001 to 2011, he served as provost, the chief academic officer of Harvard University. As provost, he had a special focus on developing collaborative initiatives spanning multiple disciplines and institutions. From 1996 to 2001, he served as director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where he emphasized neuroscience and genetics, and commissioned large pragmatic clinical trials to inform practice.

Hyman is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), where he serves on the council. He chairs the National Academies’ Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, which brings together government, industry, patient groups, foundations, and academia. He has served as president of the Society for Neuroscience (2014–2015), was founding president of the International Neuroethics Society (2008–2013), and is president- elect of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). From 2002–2016, he served as editor-in-chief of the Annual Review of Neuroscience. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

Hyman received his B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College, an M.A. from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Mellon fellow, and an M.D. cum laude from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Lin HE, Geneticist, is Fellow of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences For Developing Countries (TWAS). He currently works as Professor and Director of Bio-X Institutes at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, joint Professor of Fudan University, and Professor of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr HE’s current research interests relate to studies of disease and health (mainly on genetic/mental disorders), nutrigenomics, pharmacogenomics, genetic counseling and The New Medicine. His team first uncovered the century puzzle in genetic history, or the IHH (Indian Hedgehog) gene causes brachydactyly type A-1, the first recorded example of human disorder with Mendelian autosomal-dominant inheritance, and also discovered a teeth-related novel genetic disorder, or “He-Zhao deficiency”, which is first disease named with Chinese name. Dr HE also works as associate-editor- in-chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, and member of editorial board of dozens of national and international scientific journals. He has published over 500 peer reviewed papers and 17 books, and was granted more than 20 patents.

Professor Nancy Ip is currently the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, The Morningside Professor of Life Science, and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She received her PhD degree in Pharmacology from Harvard Medical School, after which she held the position of Senior Staff Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New York. Since joining HKUST, she has served as the Dean of Science, Director of the Biotechnology Research Institute, and Head of the Department of Biochemistry.

Professor Ip’s major research interests are in neural development and function, as well as drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. She is well-known for her seminal discoveries in the biology of neurotrophic factors, which are proteins that promote the survival, development, and maintenance of neurons in the nervous system. She has also made important contributions towards understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and synaptic plasticity, and their dysregulation in neurological disorders.

As a highly accomplished researcher, Professor Ip has published 281 papers with over 20,000 SCI citations, and holds 52 patents. She was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a founding member of The Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong. In recognition of her excellence in science, Professor Ip has received numerous awards and honors including the National Natural Science Awards, the L’OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award and the 10 Science Stars of China by Nature. She currently serves on the review panel of the International Human Frontier Science Program, the editorial board of Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences, and was also an elected Councilor for the Society for Neuroscience and the Senior Editor of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Akira Sawa, M.D. is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital in Maryland, the United States (US). His research combines clinical-based studies with experimental lab work to understand molecular, cellular, and circuitry mechanisms that underlie cognition, emotional control, and social function.

Sawa moved to the US in early stages of his professional career for further training of neuroscience and psychiatry in the US after his initial education of medicine and clinical psychiatry in Japan. Sawa started his career as an independent faculty investigator at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital in 2002. Since 2012 Sawa served as the Director and Endowed Chair of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center that is in charge of patient care, research, education, and public outreach for psychotic disorders and severe mental disorders. The Center functions as a hub of multi-departmental research coalitions for these disorders. Sawa is also a Professor, Psychiatry, Mental Health, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Sawa belongs to multiple academic societies and charities as a Fellow, Council member, and Committee member, including the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS), the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), and the Brain Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF). Sawa also contributes to global scientific agencies and centers as an advisory member of their projects, such as those of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome Trust in the UK.

Dr. Masanari Itokawa is a psychiatrist, Director, Center for Medical Research Cooperation at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science and Visiting Professor, Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo.
His background is clinical psychiatry, human genetics, neuropharmacology and molecular biology.

His major research interests are focused on the connection between molecular neuropharmacology and cultural anthropology in the field of human brain science. Dr. Itokawa currently serves on the Director of the Japanese Society of Schizophrenia Research, Councilor of Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology, Director of Japan Biological Psychiatry and the review panel of the Journal of Human Genetics.

Professor Shengying Qin is the director of Personalized Medicine Research Center at Bio-X Institutes of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Joint Center with Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard）. He is the Shanghai Pujiang Talent, Secretary-general and permanent member of Chinese Pharmacogenomics Society, Deputy Secretary-general of Chinese Personalized Medicine-Precision Medicine Science and Industry Alliance, Deputy Secretary-general of Shanghai Pudong Translational Medicine Alliance. His research work mainly focus on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine，genomics study of mental disease and genomics study of birth defect. His research works have been sponsored by National Key Project for Investigational New Drug, Chinese 863 Program, Natural Science Foundation of China etc. He was awarded young investigator of International Society of Human Genetics.

Xiancang Ma, M.D., is the Xi’an Jiaotong University Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health and the vice president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University. From 2014 to 2017, he served as assistant president and the director of Clinical Research Center at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University. From 2011 to 2015, he served as co-director of Department of Psychiatry at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Ma is a member of Chinese Psychiatrist Association (CPA), where he serves on thecommittee. He isthe vice chairman of committee of the Society for Psychiatry of Chinese Research Hospital Association (CRHA), the vice chairman of the Society for Psychiatry of China Geriatric Society (CGS), and a core member of the Chinese Psychosomatic Medicine Society.He is the president and founding director of Psychiatry and Mental Health Association of Shaanxi Province in China.

Ma is the academic leader of Psychiatry and Mental Health in Xi’an Jiaotong University. He majors in research of the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia. He hosts four projects of Natural Science Foundation of China.

Hailiang Huang is the director of Stanley Center Asia Initiatives, at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is also an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Hailiang’s research focuses on the genetics of complex disorders, especially autoimmune and psychiatric disorders. He is interested in developing new statistical and analytical methods, and use them to pinpoint and understand the genetic factors driving human complex disorders. His studies usually use large-scale omics data from various consortia and public available sources such as UK Biobank, NIH Roadmap, and GTEx.

Hailiang is a member of the International Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Genetics Consortium (IIBDGC) and has co-led its recent fine-mapping effort to resolve known genetic associations to variants with high causal probabilities (Huang et al., Nature, 2017). He is also leading a workgroup in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) to build a large-scale Asian schizophrenia cohort and use this cohort to understand the genetic architecture of schizophrenia in the Asian populations. Hailiang’s other research interests include developing methods for testing rare variants with population stratification, and investigating the connection between tissue-specific gene regulation and non-coding genetic associations.

Hailiang received cross-disciplinary training combining engineering, genetics and medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, supervised by Dr. Joel Bader. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Mark Daly at MGH and the Broad Institute.

Chairs

Program Committee