Journal article

Twins Eye Study in Tasmania (TEST): Rationale and Methodology to Recruit and Examine Twins

David A Mackey, Jane R MacKinnon, Shayne A Brown, Lisa S Kearns, Jonathan B Ruddle, Paul G Sanfilippo, Cong Sun, Christopher J Hammond, Terri L Young, Nicholas G Martin, Alex W Hewitt

TWIN RESEARCH AND HUMAN GENETICS | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | Published : 2009

Abstract

Visual impairment is a leading cause of morbidity and poor quality of life in our community. Unravelling the mechanisms underpinning important blinding diseases could allow preventative or curative steps to be implemented. Twin siblings provide a unique opportunity in biology to discover genes associated with numerous eye diseases and ocular biometry. Twins are particularly useful for quantitative trait analysis through genome-wide association and linkage studies. Although many studies involving twins rely on twin registries, we present our approach to the Twins Eye Study in Tasmania to provide insight into possible recruitment strategies, expected participation rates and potential examinati..

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)


Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Foundation


Awarded by NEI


Funding Acknowledgements

[ "We would like to thank Fleur O'Hare, Sandra Staffierl, Johan Poulsen, Justin Sherwin, Robert Macmillan, Byoung Sung Chu, Katherine Smallcombe, Olivia Bigault, Colleen Wilkinson, Julie Barbour, Robin Wilkinson, Rachael Adams, Robyn Troutbeck, Jonathan Yeoh, Ya Ling Ma, Trent Royclhouse, Lindsey Scotter, Katarina Creese, Vischal Jhanji, Sonya Bennett, Christine Chen, Ann Eldridge, Marlene Grace, Yingfeng Zheng, Jian Zhang, Mingguang He and Amy Cohn for helping examine twins. In addition, we appreciate the assistance in recruiting twins from Thanuia Gunasekera, Allison McKenzie, Anne-Louise Ponsonby, Terry Dwyer, James Dilger, Palma Ragno, jenny Boadle, Kim Dorrell, Shyamali Dharmage, John Hopper and Jamie Craig.", "The Australian Twirl Registry is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Enabling Grant (2004-2009). We also thank the following organizations for their financial support: Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust, Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia (ORIA), American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF), Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation, Foundation for Children, National Health and Medical Research Foundation Project Grant (2005-2007), Jack Brockhoff Foundation, NEI Project Grant (2007-2010). DAM is a recipient of the Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellowship." ]