Associated organisationsKing's College London · University of BristolEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£3.0M
PeriodJan 2019 — Jun 2022
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
TwinsUK tracks more than 13,500 adult twins over time, collecting their genomes, tissues, health records, and lifestyle data to understand how genes and environment shape ageing and disease. This matters because separating the effects of genetics from shared environment is notoriously difficult. Twins—especially identical pairs—offer a natural experiment: when one twin gets a disease and the other does not, researchers can pinpoint what differs between them. The cohort already supports over 800 data-access collaborations and has produced roughly 600 publications since 2012. In its next phase, TwinsUK will link participants’ electronic health records to new molecular data from deep tissue samples and add dynamic physical tests during clinic visits. The result will be a global resource for longitudinal studies of ageing across the entire life course. This is primarily a fundamental science infrastructure project. It does not aim to deliver a specific therapy or diagnostic. But similar long-running cohort studies have underpinned major discoveries—for example, linking smoking to lung cancer or identifying genetic risk factors for heart disease—by giving researchers a rich, well-characterised population to study over decades.
View original technical description
The TwinsUK cohort is a major genomic epidemiology resource with longitudinal deep genomic and phenomic data from over 13,500 adult twins who are highly engaged and recallable. We are seeking longer term funding to support operations and management, to continue enhancement of a highly successful programme of international science. The vision is to continue to be the most deeply characterised adult twin cohort in the world, providing a rich platform for scientists to research health and ageing longitudinally. More than 800 data access collaborations and 150,000 samples have been shared with external researchers, resulting in ~600 publications since 2012. In the next 5-year phase of TwinsUK we will integrate electronic health records into an enhanced deep tissue ‘omics resource and introduce dynamic phenotypic testing into clinical visits. The majority of funds requested are to support core staff and to add new enhancements in health records linkage and sociological and environmental data. These developments will not only augment the unique scientific value of the resource but enable co-analysis of these datasets with other world renowned cohorts. The result will be a unique global resource of longitudinal omics and twin research across the life-course, with immense potential for future scientific exploitation.
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