Validation and Replication of Genes Associated with Common Human Disease Using Australian Twin Families

欧洲遗传和基因组流行病学网络(Engage)旨在将分子流行病学大规模研究工作中产生的丰富数据转化为与未来临床医学进展直接相关的信息。Engage将通过整合已经从大量具有良好特征的大型样本中获得的非常大的数据集来实现这一点。由此产生的Engage资源将代表着1亿欧元(1.6亿澳元)的研究投资，并提供前所未有的力量来发现疾病和性状易感基因。QIMR将为联合分析贡献12,000对双胞胎，并提供与生活方式和代谢特征相关的疾病和遗传数据分析方面的分析专业知识，特别是心血管疾病、2型糖尿病和偏头痛风险因素。我们的实验室还将进行重要的进一步基因研究，以确定相关遗传变异和感兴趣的特征之间的因果关系。最重要的是，我们的直接参与将允许将这些发现转化为澳大利亚人口和临床领域。

The European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE) aims to translate the wealth of data emerging from large-scale research efforts in molecular epidemiology into information of direct relevance to future advances in clinical medicine. ENGAGE will do this through the integration of very large datasets already available from a substantial number of large and well-characterised samples. The resulting ENGAGE resource will represent a research investment >€100M (>AU$160M) and provide unprecedented power to discover disease and trait susceptibility genes. QIMR will contribute 12,000 twins for ENGAGE joint analyses and provide analytical expertise in the analysis of disease and genetic data related to lifestyle and metabolic traits, with particular emphasis on cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and migraine risk factors. Our laboratory will also perform vital further genetic studies to establish the causal relationship between the genetic variants concerned and the traits of interest. Most importantly, our direct participation will allow the translation of these findings into the Australian population and clinical arena.