Speakers: Thomas Schulze, M.D.

Title: Psychiatric multi-omics: more than just the psychiatric geneticist’s new clothes?

Introductions: 

Professor Thomas G. Schulze, born in 1969, studied medicine in Erlangen (Bavaria), Manama (Bahrain), Barcelona (Catalonia), and Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem (both North Carolina). He trained as a psychiatrist and held various positions in Germany (Bonn, Mannheim, Göttingen, Munich) and the USA (Chicago, IL; Bethesda, MD; Baltimore, MD; Syracuse, NY). He is a citizen of Germany and the USA.

Since 2014, he has held the position of Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics (www.ippg.eu) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (IPPG). He is a research affiliate with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD, and Adjunct Professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 2019, he also joined the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor. He is licensed to practice medicine in the European Union and the State of New York. 

Dr. Schulze’s research focuses on genotype-phenotype relationships and personalized medicine approaches in psychiatric disorders. He coordinates a German-wide center grant on longitudinal psychosis research (www.PsyCourse.de) and spearheads an international study on the genetic basis of response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder (www.ConLiGen.org), comprising several research groups from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. He has authored over 400 papers, his h-index being 77 (Web of Science) and 109 (Google Scholar), respectively. In addition to national German awards, he is the 2006 recipient of the Robins-Guze-Award of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA), the 2006 recipient of the Theodore-Reich-Award of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG), and the winner of the Colvin Prize 2016 of the Brain & Behavioral Research Foundation (BBRF). He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the APPA, and served as President of the APPA from 2015 through 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, he also held the office of President of the ISPG. From 2011 through 2017, he served as the Chair of the Section on Psychiatric Genetic of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), which he is an Honorary Member of. In 2017, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the WPA, starting a 6-year term as Secretary of Scientific Sections. In 2021, he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina.org). In 2023, he was elected President-Elect of the WPA, with the three-year term as President having started in September of 2026.

Thomas G. Schulze speaks German, English, French, Catalan, Spanish, Latin and has a basic knowledge of Italian and a beginner’s knowledge of Arabic.

Learning Objectives: 
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

1. Summarize key developments in the history of contemporary psychiatric genetics
2. Identify the lessons learned and how they determined the next steps
3. Review the major milestones of psychiatric genetic research
4. Differentiate between “genetics”, “genomics”, and “multi-omics”
5. Internalize the concept of “deep phenotyping” or “phenomics”
6. Contrast psychiatric genetic research before the era of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with the post-GWAS era
7. Appraise the value of trust-based global collaborations

ATTENDANCE / CREDIT
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TRANSCRIPT
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