Project Summary

Jonathan Flint, M.D., MRCPsych (Distinguished Investigator 2007) of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, plans to study the genetics of major depression in a population of women living in Shanghai, China. Recent advances have made possible the ability to test the involvement of every gene in the genome, making it possible to proceed directly from phenotype to molecular variant. However, this technology requires the analysis of large, well characterized patient samples. In the proposed project, Dr. Flint aims to create an efficient and relatively low-cost assessment of 1,800 patients with depression and 1,000 controls in China. Power calculations show that his sample size will have the power to detect a genetic locus with an odds ratio of greater than 1.4. To perform the study, he has obtained government permission to export DNA samples collected from saliva of women who have had two episodes of major depression prior to age 35. He will study only women because genetic risk factors for major depression are partly different between the sexes. All four grandparents of both cases and controls will have to be Han Chinese to ensure ethnic homogeneity. Controls will have no lifetime history of MD and will be at least 30 years of age. Accurate diagnosis of cases and controls is a key requirement of the study. Primary data collection and data entry into a web-based system that Dr. Flint created will be completed by Chinese physicians. Because of the low labor costs of the supervising staff, it will be feasible to collect 1,000 cases and 1,000 controls within the $100,000 budget.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar

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