Exploring the complexity of the asthma phenotype

Funded Activity Summary

Genetic and environmental causes of asthma are poorly understood. The WATCH for asthma project will study Western Australian (WA) families in which there was a twin or higher order multiple birth (twin families) in order to measure inherited and environmental contributions to the development of asthma. All WA twin families, whose infants were born during 1990 to 1995, will be invited to become part of an existing Healthway funded, population based registry of WA Twin Child Health (the WATCH study). The WATCH study has already invited 2,751 WA twin families to participate and is the only population based twin study in Australia. Funding of this study by NH and MRC will enable the extension of this unique registry to include more specific clinical information about those families in which one or more of the twins has asthma. In addition to questionnaire data, DNA and physiological information will be collected, including a potentially important new measure of airway inflammation, exhaled nitric oxide which has yet to be studied for familial aggregation. We will use the extended WATCH dataset to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the genetic epidemiology of childhood asthma. This work offers the potential to advance our current understanding of the causes of both childhood asthma and associated traits (e.g., 'twitchy' airways). By exploring the relationships between different components of asthma, we will generate information to assist us to design better epidemiological and genetic studies of asthma. At the time of recruitment, if consent is given, blood will also be taken for DNA extraction and frozen storage. This will generate a powerful data base that can later be used for to search at a molecular level for genes potentially important in causing childhood asthma. Finally, by extending the WATCH study database we will be enhancing a research resource that could potentially be used for future studies of common complex diseases other than asthma.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2000

End Date: 01-01-2002

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $325,891.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Optical technology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

airway responsiveness | asthma | atopy | biostatistics | family studies | genetic epidemiology | phenotype | population study | twin registry

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