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We exist to advance medical research, improve human health and change people’s lives. You can help us do it.
WHAT WE FUND
Depression
Mental health
Depression is a major cause of disability globally, affecting around 1 in 10 people in their lifetime.
Our research will help us better understand depression, and with this better understanding we can start to develop new treatments.Dr Jonathan Coleman
Part of the reason why one person develops depression, and someone else does not, may be due to differences in their DNA. For researchers, there is a strong incentive to understand these genetic differences, in order to support the development of better treatments. Dr Jonathan Coleman studies how genetic variants - bits of DNA that differ between people – make it more likely that a person develops depression.Recent studies have found that variants in around 150 DNA regions are more common in people who develop depression than in people who do not. However, it is unclear which variants make people more likely to develop depression, or how they do so. Dr Coleman’s project seeks to answer these questions. DNA is passed down from parent to child in sections, so variants close together on the DNA are usually inherited together. Dr Coleman will use this information, as well as information about DNA biology, to build mathematical models that rank variants by their likelihood of having a biological effect. Dr Coleman said: “We hope to learn more about depression biology from our models, and to use similar models to study other mental illnesses in the future. Our research will help us better understand depression, and with this better understanding we can start to develop new treatments.” |
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