title: The Healthy Twin Study, Korea updates: resources for omics and genome epidemiology studies.
abstract: The Healthy Twin Study, Korea (HT) is an ongoing multi-center cohort study that was initiated in 2005, based on a nation-wide twin and family database. Since its inception, the HT has recruited 815 pairs of adult twins and a total of 3,690 individual twins and their families as of July 2012. Here we summarize updates since the previous report in 2006. Besides the increase in size, the HT has been enriched in several aspects: a biobank was constructed for ongoing and future omics studies; and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers (Affymetrix GeneChip version 6.0, 1 M probes) have been analyzed for 2,200 individuals, which enabled gene identification studies for measured phenotypes. In addition, longitudinal study protocols were established through the HT and a second wave survey was finished in 2010 with >70% follow-up rate. The parallel genome research projects were recently launched, which would expedite multi-omics studies maximizing the twin potentials such as metagenomics and epigenetics studies, and endow us with resources for recruiting more participants. We submit this report to share updates and research opportunities from the HT.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environment and Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Bayasgalan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gombojav
authors.forename: Yun-Mi
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Kayoung
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Minjung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kho
authors.forename: Yong-Chul
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Gwangpyo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Joohon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sung
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018070:Biological Specimen Banks; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D012042:Registries; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics*; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers