The oldest part of the Finnish Twin Cohort, twins born before 1958, was compiled in 1974, prior to the first questionnaire study in 1975. The subsequent cohorts, known as FinnTwin16 and FinnTwin12 started in 1991 and 1994 respectively. These longitudinal studies are still ongoing.
Over the years, multiple international collaborations have occurred, including the major GenomEUtwin study, which started over 20 years ago as an EU-funded collaboration of eight large twin studies in Europe and Australia.
To celebrate half a century of research and training, we are organizing a symposium on
July 1, 2024 in Helsinki, on the Meilahti Medical Campus, at Biomedicum 1 building, lecture hall 1.
The program will start at 10:30, lunch break at 12:30 to 13:30, and end by 15:30, followed by a reception at FIMM 3rd floor, lunch area.
Program:
10:00 – 10:30 Morning coffee
Session 1
10:30 – 10:45 Opening of the seminar, Sari Lundblom, Rector of the University of Helsinki
10:45 - 11:30 Prof. Jaakko Kaprio, FIMM; University of Helsinki: The Finnish Twin Cohort studies
11:30 – 12:00 Prof. Kaare Christensen, Danish Twin Registry, University of Southern Denmark: Aging in the Finnish and Danish Twin Registries
12:00 - 12:30 Prof. Danielle Dick, Rutgers University, USA : From Twins to Treatment: How longitudinal twin studies paved the way for precision medicine for substance use disorders.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break
Session 2
13:30-14:00 Prof. Nick Martin, Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR),Brisbane, Australia: Update on the genetics of DZ twinning and its relation to infertility
14:00-14:30 Prof. Dorret Boomsma, Netherlands Twin Register, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: TwinOmics
14:30-15:00 Prof. Karri Silventoinen, University of Helsinki: Plasticity of human body size and morphology: evidence from twin studies
15:00-15:30 Prof. Antti Latvala, University of Helsinki: TwinRegistry data linkage as a resource for future studies
15:30 Closing words