The first large-scale bipolar disorder gene study in Asian populations was launched

Nearly 60 percent of the world's population lives in Asian countries, but only 10 percent of genetic study participants are of
Asian descent.
The difference is even greater in psychiatric studies, where subjects are almost all of European ancestry, although the impact of severe mental illness is average across
all populations.
The lack of representation of the world's population in genetic datasets leaves out a large number of genomic variations, limiting scientists' understanding
of the biological basis of mental disorders.

A team of scientists from around the world is trying to solve this problem by conducting a genetic study
of bipolar disorder in populations from India, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
The study, called the Asian Bipolar Disorder Gene Network (A-BIG-NET), will collect and analyze DNA, demographic, environmental and medical information
from 27,500 patients diagnosed with mental illness and 15,000 controls.

The project is led by the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience of India (led by Biju Viswanath), the Indian Institute of Science (led by Bratati Kahali), the Singapore Institute of Mental Health (led by Jimmy Lee), Korea University School of Medicine (led by Heon-Jeong Lee), and National Taiwan University (Professor Po-Hsiu Kuo).

。 Together, they will recruit participants, sequence genomes, analyze data, and build a network
of rapid data sharing.

The team hopes to uncover genetic markers for bipolar disorder, which may point to the biological causes and mechanisms
of this disorder that affects 1-2% of the world's population.
By focusing on Asian populations, the scientists aim to find markers that are more common in these populations than in others, potentially highlighting the genetic roots
of the disease shared by other populations around the world.
A better understanding of the causes of bipolar disorder from this research may one day lead to new and better treatments
.

"There hasn't been any large-scale genetic studies of bipolar disorder in Asian populations," said Hailiang Huang, director of the Stanley Global Asia Program at Broad University's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, who is also an assistant professor
at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
"If this continues, we risk that therapeutic innovations may exclude a large portion
of the global population that is underrepresented in psychiatric genetics.
" This is a major unresolved challenge
for all of the world, including South and East Asians.
”

This new project expands on Stanley Global, a Stanley Center initiative in 2014 to diversify genetic research and include underrepresented populations around the world
.
Stanley Global launched a project called NeuroGAP-Psychosis in 2018 to study the genetics of schizophrenia in four African countries, while another project called NeuroMex is conducting the same in
Mexico.
NeuroDev is studying neurodevelopmental differences
between Kenyans and South Africans.

"Studies like A-BIG-NET have the potential to uncover rare mutation risk genes, which should have a significant impact on understanding the mechanisms of bipolar disorder, much as the SCHEMA study did for schizophrenia
.
" Because Asian populations have different genetic variants, including them in A-BIG-NET will enhance the diversity and richness of gene discovery for bipolar disorder," said
Morgan Sheng, co-director of the Stanley Center.