Twins and Research

The ATR underpins many aspects of the national health and medical research effort.

For example, research for a healthy start to life is one of Australia's national research priorities. Twins represent about 1 in 40 of the population, but multiple pregnancies are at higher risk and can impact substantially on the health budget. In 2002, the cost of medical and hospital bills for a typical full-term singleton pregnancy has been estimated to be $1,976. This rose to $4,958 for twins, $98,799 for triplets and $319,392 for quadruplets. Research to improve successful management of multiple pregnancies and minimise morbidity in mothers and offspring falls within the ATR's brief, and will be a measurable outcome of studies involving the WATCH cohort.

Twins also provide a unique opportunity to unravel the fetal origins of adult disease (i.e. test the “Barker Hypothesis”), to determine the role of placental factors, including chorionicity, as determinants of fetal growth and later health and neurodevelopment, and to investigate the possibility that assisted reproduction techniques may impact on later health of the offspring. These issues will be addressed by the new MATCH cohort.

The ATR services a wide range of areas of Australian medical research and, in principle, is relevant for research into virtually any disease or medical condition. Twin studies can indicate which conditions or diseases are influenced by genetic factors and allow quantification of their role, an essential first step before launching into expensive gene hunting exercises.

Same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs provide the best form of sib-pairs to use for gene discovery (given their perfect matching for age and sex), either through genome-wide scans (most efficiently targeted at discordant pairs) or for investigating candidate genes.

The ATR places Australian researchers in an advantageous position, as it provides access to potential research subjects and a growing number of extensive longitudinal data sets on an impressive range of phenotypes for a large number of twins and, in many cases, their relatives.