Symposium Recording
Date: May 3, 2024
Location: MIT Building 46, Singleton Auditorium (Room 46-3002), 524 Main Street, Cambridge, MA
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. EDT with reception to follow
The symposium explores the groundbreaking scientific advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental health disorders.
Symposium Schedule
9:00 AM – John Gabrieli and Niall Boyce; Welcoming Remarks
9:15 AM – John Gabrieli; Grover Hermann Professor, Health Sciences & Technology,
Brain & Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Investigator, McGovern Institute, MIT;
Director, Open Learning, MIT; Director, Integrated Learning Initiative, MIT
How can science serve psychiatry to enhance mental health?
9:45 AM – Niall Boyce; Head of Mental Health Field Building, Wellcome Trust
Anum Farid; Senior Research Manager, Mental Health Field Building, Wellcome Trust
Tayla McCloud; Research Manager, Mental Health Translation, Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Mental Health: An introduction to Wellcome’s mental health strategy & funding remit
11:00 AM – Coffee Break; Atrium
11:15 AM – Dina Katabi; Thuan and Nicole Pham Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT-CSAIL
Using AI for measuring the brain, its diseases, and response to therapies
12:00 PM – Jordan Smoller; Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for Precision Psychiatry, MGH
Precision psychiatry: prospects and challenges
12:45 PM – Lunch Break; Atrium
1:30 PM – John Krystal; Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Translational Research, Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine;
Chief of Psychiatry, Yale-New Haven Hospital
Linking depression pathophysiology to the mechanism of action of ketamine and “next generation” treatments
2:15 PM – Lightning Talks; Moderated by Dost Ongur; William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Chief, Psychotic Disorders Division, McLean Hospital
- A. Eden Evins, Cox Family Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Founding Director, Center for Addiction Medicine, MGH; Director, Faculty Development, Dept of Psychiatry, MGH
- Using fNIRS and machine learning to detect impairment from THC intoxication at an individual level: The science underpinning commercial applications in employment and law enforcement settings
- Christian Webb, Associate Professor, Psychology, Harvard Medical School; Director, Treatment and Etiology of Depression in Youth Lab, McLean Hospital
- Leveraging smartphones for the detection of and scalable interventions for depressive symptoms in adolescents
- Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Professor of Psychology, Director of Biomedical Imaging Center, Northeastern University; Research Scientist, Dept of Psychiatry, MGH
- Personalized network based neurofeedback & neuromodulation in psychiatric disorders
- Virginie-Anne Chouinard, Director of Research, OnTrack Program for First Episode Psychosis, McLean Hospital; Staff Psychiatrist, Psychotic Disorders Division, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
- Targets for metabolic interventions: Insulin and energy metabolism in psychotic disorders
- Martha C. Tompson, Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University
- Engaging context: Family-based treatment for youth depression
3:20 PM – Closing Remarks
5:00 PM – Reception; Atrium
About the Hosts
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
The mission of the McGovern Institute is to understand the brain and to apply that knowledge to improve human health and well-being. To accomplish these goals, we study the brain at many levels, across multiple disciplines, and we collaborate with academic, clinical, and industry partners around the world to challenge and probe the unknown.The McGovern Institute was established in 2000 by technology entrepreneur Lore Harp McGovern and the late Patrick J. McGovern, former chairman of International Data Group (IDG).
McLean Hospital
Founded in 1811, McLean Hospital is a leader in psychiatric care, research, and education and is the largest psychiatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Our staff, faculty, volunteers, and supporters are dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.
Open Learning at MIT
The mission of Open Learning is to transform teaching and learning at MIT and around the globe through the innovative use of digital technologies. We fulfill our mission by supporting MIT faculty and students in bold experiments to enhance our residential education; promoting and enabling quantitative, rigorous, inter-disciplinary research on teaching and learning; providing platforms for digital education; sharing research and best practice by convening and partnering with schools, universities, companies, NGOs and governments; and extending MIT’s knowledge to the world.
Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research at MIT
The Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research was founded at the McGovern Institute in 2007 through a commitment from Patricia and James Poitras ’63. The goal of the center is to advance human health through brain research by addressing mental disorders that have a devastating impact on patients, their families, and society at large.
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to using science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We fund curiosity-driven research and are taking on three of the biggest health challenges facing humanity – climate change, infectious disease, and mental health.Specifically, our Mental Health strategic programme looks to achieve a world in which no one is held back by mental health problems through creating a step change in early intervention for anxiety, depression and psychosis.
We aim to do this by funding research that improves our understanding of how biological, psychological, and social factors interact in the development and resolution of depression, anxiety, and psychosis – including OCD, PTSD, bipolar, and schizophrenia – as well as projects to find new and improved ways to predict, identify and intervene as early as possible. We have a commitment to embed collaboration with Lived Experience experts in the work we do, the work we fund and in the field of mental health science.
Wellcome aims to support a field of mental health science that is collaborative, coherent, and focused – shaped in collaboration with lived experience experts. Our Mental Health field building function supports participation and diverse perspectives within mental health science, fosters working across traditional disciplinary, institutional, and ideological siloes, and identifies collective research priorities that will meaningfully move the field forward. For more information, please visit our website.