Abstract
The Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and resulting tsunami of March 11, 2011 gave rise to devastating damage on the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region. The Tohoku Medical Megabank Project (TMM), which is being conducted by Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo) and Iwate Medical University Iwate Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (IMM), has been launched to realize creative reconstruction and to solve medical problems in the aftermath of this disaster. We started two prospective cohort studies in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures: a population-based adult cohort study, the TMM Community-Based Cohort Study (TMM CommCohort Study), which will recruit 80 000 participants, and a birth and three-generation cohort study, the TMM Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study (TMM BirThree Cohort Study), which will recruit 70 000 participants, including fetuses and their parents, siblings, grandparents, and extended family members. The TMM CommCohort Study will recruit participants from 2013 to 2016 and follow them for at least 5 years. The TMM BirThree Cohort Study will recruit participants from 2013 to 2017 and follow them for at least 4 years. For children, the ToMMo Child Health Study, which adopted a cross-sectional design, was also started in November 2012 in Miyagi Prefecture. An integrated biobank will be constructed based on the two prospective cohort studies, and ToMMo and IMM will investigate the chronic medical impacts of the GEJE. The integrated biobank of TMM consists of health and clinical information, biospecimens, and genome and omics data. The biobank aims to establish a firm basis for personalized healthcare and medicine, mainly for diseases aggravated by the GEJE in the two prefectures. Biospecimens and related information in the biobank will be distributed to the research community. TMM itself will also undertake genomic and omics research. The aims of the genomic studies are: 1) to construct an integrated biobank; 2) to return genomic research results to the participants of the cohort studies, which will lead to the implementation of personalized healthcare and medicine in the affected areas in the near future; and 3) to contribute the development of personalized healthcare and medicine worldwide. Through the activities of TMM, we will clarify how to approach prolonged healthcare problems in areas damaged by large-scale disasters and how useful genomic information is for disease prevention.
Highlights
The Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) of March 11, 2011 caused profound damage in wide areas of the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region of Japan.[1]
Tohoku Medical Megabank Project (TMM) aims to establish domestic and international collaborations between many other genome cohorts and biobanks to achieve the goals of personalized healthcare and medicine
The aims of our genomic research are: 1) to construct an integrated biobank as described above; 2) to return genomic research results to the participants of the cohort studies, which will lead to the implementation of personalized healthcare and medicine in the affected areas in the near future; and 3) to contribute to the development of personalized healthcare and medicine worldwide
Summary
The Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) of March 11, 2011 caused profound damage in wide areas of the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region of Japan.[1] The tsunami hit the northeastern part of Honshu Island, and Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures were severely damaged (Figure 1). 15 827 people were lost and 2559 remain missing in these three prefectures.[2] As of December 10, 2015, 182 000 people were still evacuees throughout Japan.[3] Nearly 80% of the hospitals in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures were damaged,[4] which severely affected the delivery of medical services. A detailed report of hospitals’ damage by the GEJE is available for Miyagi Prefecture.[5]
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