Goldfarb DS, Avery AR, Beara-Lasic L, Duncan GE, Goldberg J. Background Nephrolithiasis is a complex phenotype influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Previously we found a genetic component to stone disease using a sample of male twin pairs. We now report on the genetic contribution to stones in a sample of female and male […]
Ramchandani MS, Jing L, Russell RM, Tran T, Laing KJ, Magaret AS, Selke S, Cheng A, Huang ML, Xie H, Strachan E, Greninger AL, Roychoudhury P, Jerome KR, Wald A, Koelle DM. BACKGROUND Orolabial herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection has wide severity spectrum in immunocompetent persons. To study the role of viral genotype […]
Telfer S, Bigham JJ, Sudduth ASM. Identifying environmental risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders is challenging due to the number of potential confounders. Twins are of particular interest for researchers interested in studying these types of problems due to their inherent control for the influence of genetic factors. In twin studies, this population can allow environmental […]
Aging is complex process, involving both genetic and non-genetic factors. Genetics contribute to the rate of change for bodily functions and risk of disease, but these changes can also be influenced by the environment. The goal of this study was to learn more about the genes that are related to healthy aging, and how the […]
This study seeks to understand how the environment influences our health by using a new device (the Portable Particle Monitor, PUWPM) that measures toxins in the environment, which was built and tested during the first phase of this study. These toxins include air pollution, noise, and allergens. Exposure to particle pollution can result in increased hospital […]
This study continues on work conducted from 2012-15 exploring the role of the built environment in supporting healthy lifestyles. The built environment is defined as human-made surroundings, such as buildings, streets, and transportation systems, which support or hinder human activity. Although this topic has gained increasing attention from many researchers over the last several years, […]
Zadro JR, Shirley D, Duncan GE, Ferreira PH. BACKGROUND It is unknown how familial factors influence the recovery from low back pain (LBP) and the maintenance activity behaviours. We aimed to investigate whether individual and within-family physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour influenced recovery from LBP, and maintenance of PA and sedentary behaviour in people […]
Duncan GE, Seto E, Avery AR, Oie M, Carvlin G, Austin E, Shirai JH, He J, Ockerman B, Novosselov I. Background There is considerable evidence that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes. However, true exposure-outcome associations are hampered by measurement issues, including compliance and […]
Berkseth KE, Rubinow KB, Melhorn SJ, Webb MF, De Leon MRB, Marck BT, Matsumoto AM, Amory JK, Page ST, Schur EA. Objective This study aimed to determine whether a relationship was evident between gliosis in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) and plasma testosterone concentrations in men. Methods A total of 41 adult men (aged 18-50 years) […]
Strachan E, Zhao J, Roy-Byrne PP, Fowler E, Bacus T. Major depression is a complex disorder with no single, direct causal mechanism. Morbidity has been linked to genetic processes, developmental history, and unique environmental exposures. Epigenetic mechanisms, especially DNA methylation, are also likely important factors in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). A community-based […]
Kim S, Wyckoff J, Morris AT, Succop A, Avery A, Duncan GE, Michal Jazwinski S. Variation in healthy aging and lifespan is ascribed more to various non-genetic factors than to inherited genetic determinants, and a major goal in aging research is to reveal the epigenetic basis of aging. One approach to this goal is to […]
Thanks to the support and participation of our members, we are one of the largest active registries in the world! We’d like to make sure we have the most up-to-date contact information for you. If both you and your twin update your contact information, you’ll be entered into a raffle for an Ancestry kit from […]
Cells in the human body contain DNA. Each cell expresses, or turns on, a fraction of its genes in a process known as gene regulation. Genes can be expressed depending on your genetic history, your lifestyle, and your environment. Microbes are very small life forms such as bacteria that exist on or in the human body. […]
Peng H, Zhu Y, Strachan E, Fowler E, Bacus T, Roy-Byrne P, Goldberg J, Vaccarino V, Zhao J. Objective DNA methylation has been associated with both early life stress and depression. This study examined the combined association of DNA methylation at multiple CpG probes in five stress-related genes with depressive symptoms, and tested whether these […]
Dr. Thomas Mack of the USC California Twin Program is reaching out to twins diagnosed with breast cancer in order to understand why some women remain free from breast cancer when other women with the same genetics and upbringing are affected. What we know: As a group, twin women of any age, including identical twin […]
Cook DJ, Duncan G, Sprint G, Fritz R. Smart cities use information and communication technologies (ICT) to scale services include utilities and transportation to a growing population. In this article we discuss how smart city ICT can also improve healthcare effectiveness and lower healthcare cost for smart city residents. We survey current literature and introduce […]
Tsang S, Duncan GE, Dinescu D, Turkheimer E. Background Body Mass Index (BMI), like most human phenotypes, is substantially heritable. However, BMI is not normally distributed; the skew appears to be structural, and increases as a function of age. Moreover, twin correlations for BMI commonly violate the assumptions of the most common variety of the […]
Cohen-Cline H, Beresford SA, Barrington W, Matsueda R, Wakefield J, Duncan GE. Social capital is associated with depression independently of individual-level risk factors. We used a sample of 1586 same-sex twin pairs to test the association between seven measures of social capital and two related measures of neighborhood characteristics with depressive symptoms accounting for uncontrolled […]
Cohen-Cline H, Beresford SAA, Barrington WE, Matsueda RL, Wakefield J, Duncan GE. Background Depression is an important contributor to the global burden of disease. Besides several known individual-level factors that contribute to depression, there is a growing recognition that neighbourhood environment can also profoundly affect mental health. This study assessed associations between three neighbourhood constructs-socioeconomic […]
Melhorn SJ, Askren MK, Chung WK, Kratz M, Bosch TA, Tyagi V, Webb MF, De Leon MRB, Grabowski TJ, Leibel RL, Schur EA. Background Variants in the first intron of the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene increase obesity risk. People with “high-risk” FTO genotypes exhibit preference for high-fat foods, reduced satiety responsiveness, and greater […]
