Congratulations to the research team of Liu Jiewei and Deng Minggang on their publication of Association between frailty and depression:

A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study on Science Advances, a sub journal of Science, for the first time on September 20, 2023.

Previous observatory epidemiological studies show associations between weakness and depression but the causality between them has not been clarified. As such, the research adopts a Mendelian randomization design and utilizes the genome-wide association study data from UK Biobank, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and FinnGen databases to demonstrate the two-way causality between weakness and depression. The study reveals the important role of weakness in the pathogenesis of depression and stresses the necessity of proper management of depression patients to reduce the risk of weakness.

This is a major breakthrough for the Center since the establishment of the Principal Investigator (PI) system, highlighting the accomplishments of its policy of “Prosperity Driven by Scientific Research, Teaching and Talent” and serving as a good example for other research workers. The success is bound to encourage more high-quality technological outputs in the future.