INVITED AND SPECIAL SESSIONS
Wednesday, October 26
10:00 AM-11:30 AM
Concurrent Education Sessions II (6-8)
SESSION 8 - Banking for the 21st Century and Beyond: Using Population-Based Cohorts to Study Gene-Environment Interactions in Disease
Hall 1
Co-Moderators: Cynthia Moore, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA; and Alan Guttmacher, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD
Completion of the Human Genome Project has spurred new thinking about launching large-scale cohort studies employing biobanks to study human disease. Full understanding of complex diseases such as cancer, asthma and heart disease will require investigating how genetic variations interact with environmental exposures to affect the risk of developing disease. Biobanks will be vital for these studies, and collaboration between established biobanks, as well as research and public health communities, will be essential for maximizing benefits. Large prospective U.S. studies of gene-environment interactions are in the discussion, or even planning, stages, as are projects in the United Kingdom, Canada, Estonia and Iceland. Large cohort studies have the advantage that prospectively collected data are less likely to be biased than retrospective data and are particularly able to establish the temporal relation between exposures and outcomes; however, there are formidable challenges to conducting such large studies. This session will review different approaches to biobank studies, along with their current uses, strengths and limitations. Information from biobanks promises to improve not only our understanding of the biological basis of disease, but also prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Awareness of these important resources is essential for biomedical and public health researchers.
10:00 AM The need for a U.S. population-based cohort study. Francis S. Collins, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD.
10:20 AM Using biobanks to study gene-environment interactions in a large U.S. health maintenance organization. Neil Risch, University of California, San Francisco.
10:40 AM Using existing cohort studies to study gene-environment interactions. Teri Manolio, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD.
11:00 AM Making sense of it all: How to interpret data from different studies in different countries. Muin Khoury, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
