2025 World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics

Education Day | Sunday, October 19, 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM

LAGC Education Day Session En Español (Spanish Speaking)

Presenters: Paola Giusti-Rodriguez, Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, Ney Alliey-Rodriguez, Humberto Nicolini, Jose Martinez-Magana, Maria de Araujo Tavares, Gabriela Chavarria-Soley

This session will provide a wide overview of psychiatric genetics in order to familiarize medical professionals with key concepts and current findings. Dr. Humberto Nicolini will kickoff this day long session with an introduction to the genetics of psychiatric disorders, where he will cover the history, epidemiology, and global context, as well as discuss clinical instruments. Drs. Henriette Raventós and José Jaime Martinez-Magaña will discuss study design, and key concepts and approaches in genetics and genomics. In the next block of lectures, Drs. Paola Giusti-Rodríguez, Maria Eduarda Tavares, and Gabriela Chavarría, will provide an overview of psychiatric genetic findings, including linkage and association analyses, and both common and rare variants. In the last block of talks, Dr. Ney Alliey-Rodríguez will contextualize psychiatric genetic findings and discuss potential clinical applications, and Dr. Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz will talk about challenges for psychiatric genetics research and future directions. The goal of this session is to provide medical professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurologists, with an up-to-date overview of the status of genetics and genomics in the context of psychiatric disorders. We hope that understanding the potential clinical application of these findings may catalyze research efforts and collaborations.

Schedule of Events

8:00 - 8:05 AM - Introduction - Janitza Montalvo Ortiz, PhD

8:05 - 8:35 AM - Introduction to the genetics of psychiatric disorders I (Humberto Nicolini, MD)

  • History, epidemiology, and global context
  • Clinical instruments

8:35 - 9:30 AM – Introduction to the genetics of psychiatric disorders II (José Jaime Martínez Magaña, PhD and Henriette Raventós, MD, PhD)

  • Study design
  • Human genome, molecular terminology, molecular concepts employed in the clinic.
  • Molecular approaches: DNA extraction, SNP/genotypes, GWAS, meta-analysis, “fine mapping”, epigenetics, RNA sequencing).

Coffee break

 9:45 - 10:30 AM - Psychiatric genetic findings I - Linkage and allelic association (Paola Giusti-Rodríguez, PhD)

10:30 - 11:15 AM- Psychiatric genetic findings II – copy number variants (CNV), exome, whole genome sequencing (Maria Eduarda Tavares, PhD)

11:15 am - 12:00 PM- Psychiatric genetic findings III - rare variants (Gabriela Chavarría, PhD)

12:00 - 12:30 PM -  Q&A and discussion

Lunch

1:30 - 2:15 PM - Clinical application of psychiatric genetic findings: polygenic risk scores (PRS) and pharmacogenomics (Ney Alliey-Rodriguez, MD)

 2:15 - 3:00 PM - Challenges and next steps: panel and open discussion (Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, PhD)

Workshop by the MLPsych Consortium on AI/ML in Psychiatry

Presenters: Jonathan Hess, Stephen Glatt, Lukoye Atwoli, Chunyu Liu, Isabelle Bichindaritz, Kristin Nicodemus, Itunuoluwa Isewon

All attendees of WCPG are invited to this education day workshop hosted by members of the Machine Learning in Psychiatry (MLPsych) Consortium. This symposium brings together experts from many backgrounds, and, through a combination of didactic sessions and practicums, will demystify AI/ML and work to enhance AI/ML literacy in the WCPG community.

Whether using AI for the very first time or needing a refresher on core concepts, this workshop provides several learning opportunities for researchers at varying skill levels.

At the end of this educational symposium, attendees should feel well-prepared to navigate ML/AL literature, feel confident adopting these techniques in their own analyses, and have a keen sense of how to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones in their own AI workflows.

Schedule of Events

8:00 – 8:05 AM - Opening Remarks: Welcome and Introductions, Overview of the day’s events

8:05 – 8:50 AM - Primer on AI/ML Terminology, Models, and Applications in Biology Psychiatry (Jonathan Hess)

8:50 – 9:35 AM - Guidelines for REporting Machine Learning Investigations in Neuropsychiatry (GREMLIN) (Stephen Glatt)

9:35 – 9:50 AM - Pre-Break Q&A Panel: Co-moderators & Speakers - 15 minutes

9:50 – 9:55 AM - BREAK

9:55 – 10:40 AM - Ethical Considerations of AI (Lukoye Atwoli)

10:40 – 11:25 AM - Use AI tools to improve research efficiency (Chunyu Liu)

11:25 – 11:40 AM - Pre-Break Plenary Q&A Panel: Co-Moderators & Speakers

11:40 AM – 12:30 PM – Lunch Break

12:30 – 1:15 PM - Applications of AI in Genomics (Isabelle Bichindaritz)

1:15 – 2:00 PM - A Gentle Introduction to Using Simulation to Understand AI (Kristin Nicodemus)

2:00 – 2:45 PM - AI for Mental Health Care in Africa: Bridging Data Gaps and Advancing Equity through Scalable Innovation (Itunuoluwa Isewon)

2:45 – 3:00 PM - Wrap-up Q&A & Concluding Remarks: Co-Chairs joined by all speakers