Abstract
The Council for Science and Technology recently announced a new genome-cohort project—scheduled to start in 2013—for the promotion of research in life science innovation in Japan.1 Additionally, a large ongoing project to build biobanks at 6 national centers will provide a foundation for future cohort studies.2 Such studies investigate the pathogenesis of disease by following large numbers of participants over an extended period of time and comparing factors such as lifestyle, clinical characteristics, biomarkers, and gene polymorphisms. From the perspective of disease prevention, it is important to investigate gene–environment interactions in humans. For this purpose, we need genome-cohort studies. Based on our experience in the development of a large-scale collaborative cohort project, we suggest three key issues that need to be addressed when planning new genome-cohort studies.
Highlights
The Council for Science and Technology recently announced a new genome-cohort project—scheduled to start in 2013— for the promotion of research in life science innovation in Japan.[1]
We have found that even for seemingly straightforward variables, such as smoking habit, it is not easy to integrate data
International cohort studies are currently implemented with massive lifestyle and environmental information and biospecimen databases and are constantly incorporating the newest methodological techniques. In such a highly technologically oriented era, with vast amounts of available information, successfully managing a large-scale genome-cohort study in Japan that can compete with international cohort studies is not an easy task; we clearly must improve the capabilities of coordinating centers
Summary
The Council for Science and Technology recently announced a new genome-cohort project—scheduled to start in 2013— for the promotion of research in life science innovation in Japan.[1] a large ongoing project to build biobanks at 6 national centers will provide a foundation for future cohort studies.[2] Such studies investigate the pathogenesis of disease by following large numbers of participants over an extended period of time and comparing factors such as lifestyle, clinical characteristics, biomarkers, and gene polymorphisms. From the perspective of disease prevention, it is important to investigate gene–environment interactions in humans. For this purpose, we need genome-cohort studies. Based on our experience in the development of a large-scale collaborative cohort project, we suggest three key issues that need to be addressed when planning new genome-cohort studies
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