Symposium Information

Symposium Title: Psychobiotics and the Gut–Brain Axis in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: From Mechanisms to Precision Interventions

Session Summary:
The Gut-Brain Axis and Psychobiotics session focuses on the advances in gut-brain axis research and the application of psychobiotics to mental health. Dr. Do Le Quang will present pilot data on the impact of Omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)) on the gut microbiota in patients with depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), showing that EPA tends to regulate differently compared to DHA. Ms. En-Chia Tsai will share a strategic perspective on the development of psychobiotics in biotechnology, highlighting the potential for application from research to clinical practice. Dr. Wei-Hsiang Lin will present evidence of a shift in the use of the Gerobiotic Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PS23, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving cognition and reducing neurodegenerative biomarkers in individuals with subjective cognitive impairment, while also confirming the mechanism in the C. elegans and 5xFAD mouse models. Prof. Liang-Jen Wang will report on research into bacteriofungal interactions in ADHD, particularly the role of Candida albicans in gut barrier dysfunction and its association with clinical symptoms. The session emphasizes that psychobiotics and complex microbiome interactions open up new prospects in the prevention and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. These preliminary results affirm the potential of the gut-brain axis as a platform for future precision medicine and lifestyle interventions.

Chair: Jane Pei-Chen Chang, Director, The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, China Medical University

Speaker:

Quang Le Do, PhD student, Graduate Institute of Nutrition, China Medical University

Speech Title: Omega-3 Reshape Gut Microbiota in Depression and ADHD

Enchia Tsai, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Head of Strategy and Innovation Bened Biomedical Co., Ltd.

Speech Title: Clinical Translation and Therapeutic Impact of Psychobiotic L. plantarum PS128 on Neurodevelopmental Health

Wei-Hsiang Lin, Chief Scientist, Bened Biomedical Co., Ltd.

Speech Title: Translational Evidence of the Gerobiotic Lacticaseibacillus paracasei PS23 in Subjective Cognitive Decline: From Mechanistic Models to Human Outcomes

Liang-Jen Wang, Director, Department of Psychiatry at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Speech Title: Interaction of Candida albicans With Bacteria and Pathogenesis Mechanism in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Symposium Title: Japanese Clinical Perspectives on Nutritional Psychiatry at the Mind-Body Interface: Micronutrients, Metabolism, and Cognitive Health

Session Summary:

This symposium presents Japanese clinical perspectives on integrating nutritional assessment into psychiatric diagnosis and standard treatment, focusing on micronutrients, metabolism, and cognition.

The first outlines the Okudaira-led development of nutritional psychiatry in Japan. In 2014, Okudaira coined the Japanese term Eiyo Seishin Igaku and led nationwide education for healthcare professionals and the public. The Japan Nutritional Psychiatry Research Group, founded in 2016, held 25 multidisciplinary meetings through 2025. In October 2025, it launched the peer-reviewed Journal of the Japanese Society of Nutritional Psychiatry and declared its transition to a society. On April 1, 2026, a non-profit two-corporation structure was established: the Japanese Society of Nutritional Psychiatry (JSNP), for academic activities and certification, and the Japanese Association of Nutritional Psychiatry (JANP), for education. Its certification system comprises specialist and public-oriented qualifications and accredited medical and counseling facilities. As of June 2026, JSNP had over 1,000 members (over one-third physicians), 150 delegates (132 psychiatrists), 82 facilities, and 282 certified individuals holding 453 certifications, illustrating an organizational and educational foundation in Asia.

The second reports a retrospective study of undernourished psychiatric inpatients with suspected thiamine deficiency, in whom empirical nutritional intervention was associated with marked MMSE improvement and low delirium incidence, underscoring early recognition.

The third describes an 83-year-old man with mild cognitive impairment whose cognition improved after multimodal nutritional and metabolic intervention including exogenous ketones.

The session highlights how nutritional and metabolic interventions can complement psychiatric and cognitive care, emphasizing evidence-based practice, cautious causal interpretation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and future research in Asia.

Co-Chairs:

Ryohei Takeno, Deputy Head, Mental Health Department, Saitama Sekishinkai Hospital, Sekishinkai Social Medical Foundation
Shizuka Ota, Director, Watanabe Mental Clinic

Speaker:

Tomoyuki Okudaira, Vice Director, Yamaguchi Hospital

Speech Title: Development of Nutritional Psychiatry in Japan: From Clinical Experience to Academic Society Formation

Yohei Kita, Vice Director, Department of Psychiatry, Shomidori Hospital

Speech Title: Suspected Thiamine Deficiency in Malnourished Psychiatric Inpatients: Early Recognition and Empirical Nutritional Intervention

Hiroyuki Konno, Chief Director, Japan Brain Care and Dementia Prevention Research Center

Speech Title: Cognitive Improvement in an 83-Year-Old Male With Mild Cognitive Impairment After Multimodal Nutritional and Metabolic Intervention Including Exogenous Ketone Supplementation: A Case Report

Symposium Title: Decoding the Metabolism–Brain–Sleep Axis from Molecule to Lifestyle: Precision Mind-Body Medicine through Single-Cell Brain Genomics, AI-Enabled Optical Imaging, Metabolic Profiling, and Sleep-Based Intervention

Session Summary:
Mind-body medicine is being reshaped by the convergence of AI, neuromodulation, and lifestyle medicine — the central themes of this symposium. Aligned with the umbrella vision of moving "From Lab to Life," this session decodes the metabolism–brain–sleep axis across four complementary scales, from lifestyle-driven physiology to single-cell molecular substrates, and from AI-enabled early detection to sleep-based intervention. The session opens with whole-body indirect calorimetry from the metabolic chamber, where minute-by-minute quantification of energy expenditure and substrate oxidation reveals how diet, light, and circadian conditions — the modifiable levers of lifestyle medicine — shape sleep architecture and 24-hour energy metabolism, establishing the mechanistic foundation linking metabolism to sleep. Building on this foundation, AI-enabled brain biomarkers come into view: functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) combined with machine learning is shown to distinguish preclinical Alzheimer's disease from cognitively normal aging, providing a low-cost, portable, AI-driven tool for early disease detection that brings brain-health screening from the laboratory into community use. The session then descends to the molecular substrate of the brain: joint single-nucleus profiling of 3D chromatin conformation and DNA methylation (sn-m3C-seq) across more than fifty thousand cells reveals temporally distinct epigenomic and chromatin-architectural reorganization of the developing human frontal cortex and hippocampus, with cell-type-specific regulatory regions that overlap putatively causal common variants for schizophrenia — defining the microscopic, neurodevelopmental molecular basis of psychiatric risk. The session closes by returning from molecule to lifestyle intervention: hyperglycemia is shown to suppress and fragment REM sleep through dietary and dopaminergic mechanisms in preclinical models, positioning sleep-based interventions — alongside glycemic control — as actionable, lifestyle-medicine levers for improving metabolic and cognitive outcomes. Together, the four talks chart a coherent translational arc — lifestyle-metabolic measurement, AI-enabled brain biomarkers, microscopic brain regulomes, and sleep-based therapeutic intervention — and embody the symposium's vision of transforming mind-body medicine through AI, neuromodulation, and lifestyle medicine, From Lab to Life.

Chair: Tae Kim, Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Speaker:

Insung Park, Associate Professor, GInstitute of Global Well-Being Science, Hirosaki University

Speech Title: Metabolic Inflexibility During Sleep: Insights From Whole-Room Indirect Calorimetry

Jae Gwan Kim, Professor, Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Speech Title: Engineered Prefrontal fNIRS Functional Connectivity Features for Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease Detection

Dongsung Lee,Associate Professor, Seoul National University College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Sciences

Speech Title: Epigenomic and Chromosomal Architectural Reconfiguration in Developing Human Frontal Cortex and Hippocampus

Tae Kim, Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Speech Title: REM Sleep Suppression During Diazoxide-Induced Acute Hyperglycemia in a Non-Diabetic Mouse Model

Symposium Title: Rewiring the Inflamed Mind: Neuroplasticity, Mood Disorders, and Psychotherapy Within the Immune-Brain Axis

Session Summary:

This thematic session presents a translational framework for immunopsychiatry, linking inflammatory pathways, neuroplasticity, psychotherapy, and clinical innovation in mood and stress-related disorders. The session begins with cytokine dysregulation in depression and anxiety, with particular attention to IL-17/Th17 signaling, anti-inflammatory imbalance, blood-brain barrier integrity, HPA-axis activation, and downstream effects on neurotransmission. It then examines how chronic low-grade inflammation disrupts neuroplasticity through BDNF suppression, kynurenine-pathway activation, glutamatergic excitotoxicity, and impaired hippocampal neurogenesis, while also discussing ketamine as a rapid-acting intervention with potential anti-inflammatory and synaptogenic effects. A third presentation focuses on how integrated psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment may influence anxiety, depressive symptoms, and broader mind-body outcomes. The session further expands the immune-brain discussion to neuropeptide systems implicated in social stress, resilience, and severe mental disorders. The concluding presentation synthesizes these perspectives into a personalized clinical model, emphasizing biomarkers, treatment-resistant depression, and the practical translation of immune-brain research into psychiatric standards of care.

Co-Chairs:

Piotr Gałecki, Professor and Head, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz
Marta Broniarczyk-Czarniak, Assistant Professor, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz

Speaker:

Gracja Ryznar, Psychiatry Resident, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz

Speech Title: Cytokines and the Mind: Immunological Underpinnings of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

Katarzyna Bliźniewska-Kowalska, Assistant Professorr, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz

Speech Title: Breaking the Brain’s Resilience: How Inflammatory Pathways Impair Neuroplasticity

Małgorzata Gałecka, Head, Psychotherapy Department, Medical University of Lodz

Speech Title: Healing Beyond the Mind: The Impact of Psychotherapy on the Immunological Profile

Marta Broniarczyk-Czarniak, Assistant Professorr, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz

Speech Title: Neuropeptides, Social Stress, and the Immune-Brain Interface in Severe Mental Disorders

Piotr Gałecki, Professor and Head, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Medical University of Lodz

Speech Title: From Inflammatory Depression to Personalized Immunopsychiatry: Clinical Standards and Translational Pathways

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