"Our objectives include elucidating the interplay between the genetic and environmental elements that influence the risk for neuropsychiatric disease, eroding the ignorance that continues to stigmatize mental illness, and identifying and promoting those behaviors necessary to initiate a personalized approach to neuropsychiatric medicine and recovery."

Closely aligned with these aims is the Semel Institute's emphasis on advancing behavioral health that can prevent an even wider range of biomedical illnesses.

The IPCN will focus on phenotyping ” the phenotype is the biological and behavioral expression of an individual's genetic makeup, or genotype ” which will complement the institute's existing strengths in genetics.

New technologies already are enabling analysis of human genetic material with breathtaking speed and scope. To harness these advances and to generate breakthroughs in understanding the genetic bases of behavioral disorders now demands larger and more comprehensive studies of the phenotypes that underlie the existing diagnostic descriptions of illnesses.

To that end, the IPCN facility will enable large-scale phenotyping studies, including studies of personality, cognition, and brain activity and structure, and will promote the training of new investigators in these techniques.

The design process for the new center is already underway. Construction is expected to begin in 2011, with occupancy in late 2012.

SOURCE Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior