Wellcome Trust Fellow launches genetic study of major depression in women in China

23 October 2008

Professor Jonathan Flint, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, has received a £1.4 million grant from the Trust for a major new study into the genetics of major depression, to be carried out in a population of women in China. The five-year study will be one of the largest studies into depression ever carried out in China.

In the first stage of the project, researchers in China will interview over 6000 women who have suffered from recurrent lifetime major depression. They will compare this sample with 6000 women who have never suffered from depression. In each of 15 hospitals across China, psychiatrists trained by the Virginia Commonwealth University will complete a detailed questionnaire on each volunteer.

In the second stage, the researchers will extract DNA from saliva samples collected from all the volunteers. The DNA will then be analysed to establish differences between the genetic profiles of the women affected by depression (cases) and those who have never suffered from depression (controls).

Professor Flint, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, says: "We know that major depression has a genetic component. This project aims to identify the specific genes that make some people more susceptible than others to recurrent bouts of major depression. Knowing more about the biological basis of depression will help researchers develop better therapies."

The project, a collaboration between the University of Oxford, Hua Shan Hospital at Fudan University, China, and the Virginia Commonwealth University, follows on from a successful pilot project of 1000 women funded by the mental health research charity, NARSAD.

Image: Professor Jonathan Flint at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford; Wellcome Images.