Shanghai Jiaotong University launches depression study

Shanghai Jiaotong University has launched a project to study depression. The new study is in partnership with the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Researchers are looking at possible genetic links in those who suffer from severe depression in China with genetic markers specific to the Han ethnicity. This is being done through blood analysis at the Bio-X research center at Shanghai Jiaotong University. 

Researchers are tasking 60 to 70 hospitals across China with providing blood samples from more than 20,000 female patients who have been diagnosed with depression. Their genetic traits will be compared to samples taken from people who do not suffer from depression.

Around 50,000 samples will be taken and stored for the research, which will all be conducted in China. The project itself is being headed by He Lin with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with the assistance of UCLA's leading genetics expert Jonathan Flint. 

The World Health Organization estimates there are more than 300 million people suffering from depression worldwide. Sociologists in China have begun expressing concern about the growing number of suicides connected to depression in recent years.