The diagnostic category of schizophrenia encompasses a range of disabilities with distinct phenotypic features typically manifesting in young adulthood. Classically the purview of psychiatrists, it is now apparent that close cross disciplinary collaboration and iterative comparison of datasets is a must if we intend to make significant in-roads in preventing both the slide into full blown disease and ensuring that susceptible individuals maintain best quality of life as they age. For example, understanding whether there are specific development windows that permit environmental triggers acting on specific genetic backgrounds to unmask and ensconce the relevant phenotypes is one area where epidemiology, clinicians, and basic neuroscientists likely possess key pieces of the puzzle. A mind-set shift towards coherent collaborative strategies aimed at uncovering fundamental neurobiological principles that govern the dynamic way in which the brain continually moulds and reshapes structure and function could speed progress in the field.