[A selective review of recent research results in biological psychiatry].

In accordance with the motto of this year's German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) conference, this article surveys very recent developments in biological psychiatry and neurosciences that have the potential to open up new vistas for the psychiatry and psychotherapy of the future. The work reported includes progress in genome-wide association studies, the implications of these findings for psychiatric nosology and gene-environment interactions, new methods to characterize mechanisms of altered brain function in animal models and humans and the translation of these findings into new therapies. As a core methodology for the psychiatry of the future, biological and applied neuroscience approaches should benefit from sustained structural funding to ensure that these advances impact real-world patient care.