News

Dorret I. Boomsma receives a 'Distinguished Investigator' grant

Dorret I. Boomsma (Netherlands Twin Register VU University, Amsterdam) received a “Distinguished Investigator” grant from the “Brain and Behavior Research Foundation” (formerly NARSAD) .

The grant focuses on establishing a link between two large databases in the Netherlands: The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) and the Pathological Anatomy National Automated Archive (PALGA) and aims to study the association between early prenatal factors and developmental outcomes in childhood.

The NTR has recruited newborn twins in the Netherlands since 1989. PALGA is a national database with abstracts of  pathology reports, including information on chorionicity in twins and multiples.

Prior twin studies have examined specific prenatal and perinatal risk factors (e.g. maternal smoking, birth weight) and their interactions with genetic factors in the etiology of behavioral problems in children, but have important limitations. There is detectable variation in the similarity of twins’ prenatal environment. Depending on the timing of the zygote splitting in two, MZ twins can be mono-amniotic, di-amniotic mono-chorionic, or di-amniotic di-chorionic (DA-DC). DZ twins also vary in their prenatal similarity based on the degree of placental fusing. Information on chorion and placental type in large twin registers is very rare. Thus there is an entire range of prenatal similarity, in twins which can be used to estimate the importance of prenatal environment, separate from that of the post-natal environment.  

More information:

http://narsad.com/
www.tweelingenregister.org/
www.palga.nl