Psychiatric genetics in China: achievements and challenges

Psychiatric genetics is still in its early stages in China, but has great potential and a promising future. Many of the elements and resources required for the dynamic growth of this field are already in place. At the same time, there are many hurdles to overcome. Enhanced education to promote public awareness of the importance of genetic research, increased funding for individual labs and collaborative research, increased participation of clinicians in patient ascertainment and testing, and improved academic evaluation policies are all vital to fostering collaborative research and the formation of large consortia needed to create a science of genetics tailored to the needs of the Chinese population. We hope that collaborative efforts of the entire psychiatric genetics community, with active input from the researchers who are working on neuroscience biology, will lead to better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing psychiatric diseases in China, thereby easing the burdens of individual sufferers and their families and the social and economic burdens of country as a whole. The ideas discussed at the First Summit on Chinese Psychiatric enetics in 2004 were further developed at the Second Summit n Chinese Psychiatric Genetics in Kunming, Yunnan (12-13 April) and presentations and discussions from both Summits contributed to the content of the present paper. The Third Summit on Chinese Psychiatric Genetics will be held in Wuxi, Jiangsu in 2016. We strongly believe that these Summits will become an important orum for psychiatric genetics research in China and will serve as a seed from which a new research society will grow. We welcome all interested researchers, both international and from China, to join us at our next meeting in Wuxi.