This pilot study was funded by the NIAAA and recently completed enrollment (N=42). The study recruited from an existing registry study of military veterans and servicemembers and will utilize pre-COVID data on a range of physical, substance, and mental health factors to examine 1) change in alcohol use and problems over time and 2) daily relationship between alcohol use/problems and PTSD in the context of the pandemic through longitudinal survey data collection (3 time points) and experience sampling methods (3x/day for 4 weeks) to assess the relationship between alcohol use and problems with PTSD. PI and contact: Christina Sheerin.

This study is funded by the NIAAA and is currently enrolling male veterans with combat/deployment history. The goal is to examine shared risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD). Clinical interview data and a series of self-report measures are collected on participants (goal N~=200, curren N~=75) with a subset of participants (current N~=25) providing saliva samples for genotyping and participating in a fear conditoning laboratory task. PI and contact: Christina Sheerin.

Perturbations of microRNAs (miRNA) has been linked to a number of disease states in animal models and human studies, including psychiatric and substance use disorders. Using plasma collected from a cohort of adolescent and young adult twins (n>400; 15-22 year), we derived measurements of bulk exosomal miRNAs as well as exosomal-miRNAs released from neuronal tissues in an extant, deeply phenotyped sample. PI and contact: Roxann Roberson-Nay.

The Adolescent and Young Adult Twin Study (aka, AYATS) is a project funded under the NIMH RDoC initiative (R01MH101518, 2014-2018). This project is similar to the JAS study and was designed to examine a broad suite of putative endophenotypic measures for negative valence systems (NVS) and their relationship to early symptoms of internalizing disorders and symptoms. Adolescent and Young adult twins (N=430 pairs, aged 15-20) were recruited through the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry and completed various dimensional self-report measures along with cognitive, emotional, and psychophysiological laboratory paradigms designed to assess NVS function. Parents also completed surveys about their twins and themselves. A small subset of the twins (75 pairs) also participated in a pilot DNA methylation and gene expression study of major depression. Please contact PI (R Roberson-Nay) for more information. PI and contact: Roxann Roberson-Nay.

This study is enrolling individuals 18 and older who meet our inclusion criteria. The broad goals are to identify genetic variants associated with risk for substance use disorders, and to examine how substance use is related to personality and health-related behaviors. Those who meet our screening criteria complete a 15-20 survey through REDCap that covers substance use, personality, family history, sociodemographic factors, depressive symptoms, and other behavioral measures. Individuals who complete the survey are mailed a DNA collection kit for a saliva sample, and are compensated via electronic gift card once the sample is returned. Co-PIs: Kenneth Kendler and Dace Svikis, Contacts: Kenneth Kendler, Dace Svikis, and Alexis Edwards.

This study is enrolling young adults who participated in the larger Spit for Science study. The broad goal is to examine potential shared risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), increased alcohol consumption (AC), and alcohol use disorder (AUD) for those exposed to trauma. Participants (~n=200) complete clinical interviews about PTSD symptoms, AC and their AUD symptoms on Zoom, self-report questionnaires more broadly focused on mental health and substance use and family history via REDCap, and if they qualify, in person laboratory visits on the medical school campus. The lab visits involve having participants complete game-like tasks on the computer, as well as a CO2 breathing task. Individuals are invited to complete another self-report measure 6 months after their lab visit. Individuals are compensated for all study components. PI and contact: Katie Bountress.

Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) comprises middle-aged male twin pairs concordant for US military service at some time between 1965-1975. Nearly 80% reported no combat experience. The sample is 88.3% non-Hispanic white, 5.3% African-American, 3.4% Hispanic, and 3.0% “other” participants. To date, subjects have undergone 3 assessments. Wave 1 took place between 2001-2007 (Kremen et al., 2006) (mean age=56.1, SD=2.6, range=51.1 to 60.2). Wave 2 occurred approximately 5.5 years later (mean age=61.8, SD=2.6, range=56.0 to 65.9). Wave 3 occurred approximately 5.7 years later (mean age=67.5, SD=2.6, range=61.4 to 71.7). There are N=1,176 VETSA subjects with imputed GWAS data. PHENOTYPIC DATA included longitudinal cognitive & neuropsychological tests, medical history & objective health, psychological, psychosocial & lifestyle measures, and biological data such as MRI scans, plasma biomarkers, and clinical chemistries. PI: William Kremen, contact: Nathan Gillespie.

The Twin Study of Negative Valence Emotional Constructs (aka, Juvenile Anxiety Study, JAS) is a project funded under the NIMH RDoC initiative (R01MH098055, 2013-17) designed to examine a broad suite of putative endophenotypic measures for negative valence systems (NVS) and their relationship to early symptoms of internalizing disorders. Pre-adolescent twins (N=398 pairs, aged 9-14) were recruited through the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry and completed various dimensional self-report measures along with cognitive, emotional, and psychophysiological laboratory paradigms designed to assess NVS function. Parents also completed surveys about their twins and themselves. A small subset of the twins (20 pairs) also participated in a pilot neuroimaging protocols. For complete details, see Carney et al., Twin Research and Human Genetics. 2016 Oct;19(5):456-64. Please contact PI (J Hettema) or co-I (R Roberson-Nay) for more information.

VCU is one of 21 sites in the ABCD consortium, which is currently collecting structural and functional neuroimaging data from 11,500 9-10 year-old children in the first wave of a planned 10-year longitudinal study. The project also assesses psychopathology, substance use and other health-related factors and outcomes. Drs. Neale and Bjork are co-principal investigators of the VCU site, which is one of four that are each collecting data from 200 pairs of twins and 150 non-twins. These data are scheduled for release to the scientific community, beginning in December 2017. The primary goals are to establish normative neurocognitive development in this age range, and to assess whether there are causal effects of substance use or other behaviors on brain development. See abcdstudy.org for further information.

Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey is an effort being led by researchers at VCU to create a unique universitywide research opportunity for VCU students.

The scientific focus of the project is to understand why some people are more likely than others to develop problems associated with the use of alcohol, the use of other substances, and difficulties with emotional health. The project aims to understand how individual genetic predispositions come together with environmental factors to contribute to these outcomes. We know that 1 in 4 people over the age of 18 are affected by substance use or mental health problems. This project is an opportunity for students at VCU to work together with some of the leading researchers in the world in this area to try to understand and prevent these important and widespread problems. For more information about this study and a description of the dataset, visit the spit4science.vcu.edu site.

The VA30k sample contains data from 14,763 twins, ascertained from two sources. Public birth records in the Commonwealth of Virginia for twins born in Virginia between 1915 and 1971 and responses to a letter published in the newsletter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP, 9476 individuals). Twins were mailed a 16-page ‘Health and Lifestyles’ questionnaire (HLS), and were asked to supply names and addresses of their spouses, siblings, parents and children for the follow-up study of relatives of twins. Completed questionnaires were obtained from 69.8% of twins. The original twin questionnaire was modified slightly to provide two additional forms, one appropriate for parents of twins and another for spouses, children and siblings of twins. Response rates from relatives (44.7%) was much lower than that from twins. Of the complete sample of 28,492 individuals (from 8567 extended kinships), 58% were female. The HLS included demographics, health history, lifestyle, life events, relationships, personality, problems, attitudes.

The OZ25k sample was ascertained through two cohorts of twins. The first cohort, recruited in 1980-82 from a sampling frame of 5,967 twin pairs aged 18 years or older (born 1893-1964) and enrolled in the Australian NHMRC Twin Registry (ANTR), included 3,808 pairs (64%) who completed HLS and were followed up with a second questionnaire in 1988-90 with responses from 2,708 complete pairs (81%). The second cohort, born 1964-71, recruited from ANTR in 1989, were mailed HLS in 1989-91 with responses from 3,769 individuals from 4,269 eligible pairs. Both cohorts were asked to provide names of relatives, who were mailed a modified HLS in 1989-91 and respectively 8601 (60%) and 2799 (56%) of relatives from cohorts 1 and 2 returned questionnaires (RR 56-65%). In total there were 21,256 respondents, of whom 20,945 had valid scores for smoking. The HLS included demographics, health history, lifestyle, life events, relationships, personality, problems, attitudes.

VATSPSUD is the first population-based adult twin study of common psychiatric disorder. VATSPSUD focused initially on female twins (‘FF’ study) but was later extended to include male (‘MM’) and unlike-sex pairs (‘MF’) with a more extensive assessment of substance use and disorders. The first wave targeted 2352 women from 1176 FF pairs from the population-based Virginia Twin Registry (VTR) now MATR, of which 2162 (92.0%) were interviewed yielding 1032 complete pairs. 2002 women completed wave 2, 1899 wave 3 and 1939 wave 4. The first wave of the MM/MF studies targeted 9418 eligible individuals from MM and MF twin pairs. 6092 males and 1720 females (N=6812, 72.4%) completed wave 1 interviews, 5621 wave 2 and 752 male pairs wave 3. Parental psychiatric assessments were also done for the FF part. The study includes measures of adult psychopathology, psychiatric and drug use disorders. Several of the principal disorders have been assessed on more than one occasion by structured interview and self report (and sometimes cotwin reports) using one-year prevalence or lifetime history. Personality measures, demographic variables and environmental risk factors were also included. Waves FF1-FF4 contaings over 25k ‘person months’; MM1-MM2 45,838 and 38,051, OSDZ pairs 43,030 and 35,282. Parental interviews of twins in the FF study provide multiple independent assessments of a range of risk factors for psychopathology in twins.

The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) is a multi-site project, with the goal of identifying specific genes involved in the predisposition to alcohol dependence and related disorders. The COGA sample consists of large families densely affected with alcohol dependence, in which were identified through inpatient or outpatient alcohol treatment programs. All individuals were administered the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) interview, which is a polydiagnostic instrument that assesses most major psychiatric disorders (Bucholz et al., 1994; Hesselbrock et al., 1999). More than 14,000 individuals have been assessed. Individuals from the most densely affected families also underwent an electrophysiological protocol, including EEG and a battery of auditory and visual evoked potentials, as well as a variety of additional phenotypic information including personality, alcohol craving & expectancies, neuropsychological tests, and IQ. COGA has used a variety of complementary strategies for gene identification, and has a variety of genotyped samples in which different types of genetic analyses are on-going. These include (1) family-based linkage sample, which has microsatellite and SNP marker data on ~2282 individuals from 262 of the most densely affected, multiplex alcoholic families; (2) case control GWAS sample, consisting of 1235 alcohol dependent cases and 711 controls; and (3) child-adolescent sample, consisting of ~3000 individuals between the ages of 12-25, who are being followed longitudinally, in order to understand the effects of susceptibility genes identified in the adult samples across development. Other sites (PIs): University of Connecticut (V. Hesselbrock); Indiana University (H.J. Edenberg, J. Nurnberger Jr., T. Foroud); University of Iowa (S. Kuperman, J. Kramer); SUNY Downstate (B. Porjesz); Washington University in St. Louis (L. Bierut, A. Goate, J. Rice, K. Bucholz); University of California at San Diego (M. Schuckit); Howard University (R. Taylor); Rutgers University (J. Tischfield); Southwest Foundation (L. Almasy). For more about this study and a description of the dataset please see NIAAA-COGA and Wiki-COGA.

VTSABD (Eaves) and its young adult follow-up (YAFU, Silberg & TSA, Miles) are the first population-based, multi-wave, cohort-sequential twin study of adolescent psychopathology and its risk factors. It included Caucasian families of male and female MZ and DZ twins and their parents to assess the role of genes and environment in developmental trajectories of behavior and disorders from childhood to young adulthood and identify major familial psychosocial risk factors and characterize their correlation and interaction with genetic risk. Adolescent male & female twins aged 8 through 16 were ascertained through Virginia schools. In the first wave, 1412 Caucasian families participated (2775 individuals twins in 1384 complete pairs). Twins under age 18 were followed every 18 months up to 4 times. All twins were targeted for a young adult assessment. 1185 pairs have been followed up in YAFU at a median age of 21 years; 399 pairs (1084 individuals) in TSA at 25 years. VTSABD comprises 6282 face-to-face assessments of juveniles across waves and 3373 assessments of young adults. The twins’ parents completed psychiatric assessments (N=2470); parents and teachers acted as informants about adolescent twins. The study used a rich assessment battery (published or widely-used instruments, supplemented or modified for a longitudinal twin-family study) including dimensional and categorical measures, multiple raters, and environmental indices. The data comprise psychiatric and substance use assessment of twins as adolescents and young adults, and parents, with the principal psychosocial and environmental risk factors. Prospective ratings were secured about each child by direct assessment of the child and by reports of parents and teachers. The core juvenile assessment comprised face-to-face interviews using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) adapted for use with twins and their parents, which yields symptomatology relevant to common areas of childhood and adolescent behavior and disorder nuanced with onset, frequency, incapacity, treatment, and context for each clinical domain. Other personality, behavioral, cognitive and environmental assessments were done. VTSABD used a SCID-based assessment of psychopathology in young adult twins (YAFU) and their parents. The Life Experiences Interview, a structured interview adapted from the Early Experiences Interview, was developed to study environmental factors of drug abuse for TSA.

Subjects were enrolled from the population-based Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry (MATR) which combines the Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina Twin Registries. Questionnaires were mailed to NC and VA mothers of twins and their 11 to 18-year-old adolescent twins. The pilot sample consisted of 656 mothers and 448 adolescent twins. MASATS comprises 1127 adolescent twins (357 twin pairs with known zygosity) 65% RR. Questionnaires include measures of risk and protective factors for adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems based on published instruments and substance use based on Monitoring the Future Study and Drug Use Screening Inventory.

Add Health is a nationally representative study of the causes of health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7-12 and their outcomes in young adulthood, and seeks to examine how social contexts (families, friends, peers, schools, neighborhoods, and communities) influence adolescents’ health and risk behaviors. Data at the individual, family, school, and community levels were collected in two waves between 1994 and 1996. In 2001 and 2002, Add Health respondents, 18 to 26 years old, were re-interviewed in a third wave to investigate the influence that adolescence has on young adulthood. Questionnaires included questions of all areas of adolescent health, including substance use. PI and contact: Alexis Edwards.

CVT is a longitudinal population-based twin study of genetic epidemiology of risk for hypertension. Ascertainment Adolescent twins were identified through over 75 elementary schools within a 150 mile radius. Twins and their parents visited MCV the first time around the twins’ 11th birthday and were followed up every 18 months until age 17. In 1988, a new cohort of 9.5 year old twins entered the project, most of whom were followed up until age 14. The majority of twins are Caucasian (N=459), 19% of families were African-American (N=111). 95% of mothers and 70% of fathers participated at least once. CVT data comprise 1835 person visits. The study protocol included anthropometric and cardiovascular measures and questionnaires. Heart rate, blood pressure and echocardiographic dimensions were measured at rest and reactivity measures to physical and mental stress were obtained. Health and family history, demographics, puberty, personality and behavioral characteristics, such as type A behavior and substance use were assessed by questionnaire. Blood samples were taken for zygosity. Overlap VTSABD-CVT Although the two projects ascertained twins independently, both were conducted at the same time in Virginia, consequently a sample of 174 twin pairs participated in both projects, often at multiple occasions. Of these families, 157 have participated in at least 5 combined visits, resulting in 1133 twin pair visits.

LLTS is a longitudinal population-based twin study of genetic epidemiology of physical fitness. Ascertainment Adolescent twins were ascertained from the population-based East Flanders Prospective Twin Study (EFPTS) with zygosity diagnosis at birth. Twins and parents visited for the first time around the twins’ 10th birthday with follow-up visits of the twins scheduled every 6 months until age 16 with an additional visit at age 18. A total of 115 twin families from five birth cohorts (1976-1981) participated with approximately equal numbers of twins in each zygosity by sex group . Drop out rates were small. LLTS data comprise 1380 person visits. The LLTS protocol was very similar to the CVT protocol except for physical fitness. Included were 27 body measures, somatotype, skeletal maturity, cardiovascular evaluation, physical fitness test battery (nine Eurofit motor tests and VO2max). Subjects filled out questionnaires on their health, family history, sports participation, physical activity, SES, substance use.

FinnTwin16 (FT16) and FinnTwin12 (FT12) are two population-based twin studies aimed at understanding how genetic and environmental influences impact the development of alcohol use and related behaviors across adolescence and into young adulthood. All twins were identified through Finland’s Central Population Registry, permitting exhaustive and unbiased ascertainment of all twins born in the country across 10 birth, for a total of ~10,000 twins and their families. FT16 has questionnaire assessments at ages 16, 17, 18.5, and in the mid-20s. These questionnaires contain items on alcohol use, smoking, other drug use, personality, and related health habits and environmental factors. A subset of the twins highly concordant or discordant for alcohol use in adolescence (~600 twins) also completed psychiatric interviews, DNA collection, electrophysiological measures, and neuropsychological testing at the mid-20s assessment. FT12 first assessed children at age 12, with follow-ups at age 14, 17, and in the young 20s. In FT12, we have rich data from the twins, parents, teachers, and peers. A subset (~1850 twins and their parents) also completed psychiatric interviews at ages 14 and 22. GWAS data for this subset are also available. Other PIs: Richard Rose, Indiana University; Jaakko Kaprio, University of Helsinki.

The Child Development Project (CDP) is a community based sample, in which children were recruited during kindergarten pre-registration from a variety of schools that served families from a range of socioeconomic status groups at three US cities. The original CDP sample consisted of 585 children (52% male; 81% European American, 17% African American, and 2% other ethnic groups). Data collection began the summer before the participants entered kindergarten (at ~age 5) and follow-ups have been conducted annually and remain on-going (participants are currently entering their 30s). DNA was collected from 93% of the target sample of regular CDP participants and is stored in the VIPBG molecular genetics laboratory of Dr. Riley. The project’s guiding model of developmental process is that children’s biological dispositions, cultural contexts, life experiences, and characteristic social cognitions transactionally combine to influence a variety of behavioral outcomes. The rich, longitudinal assessments of the CDP offer special advantages for advancing understanding of genetic mechanisms in behavioral development. The CDP’s database contains multi-source, multi-method measures of multiple levels of social context and process, including family, school, peer, neighborhood, and child characteristics. It also contains a wide range of adjustment measures, including externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, substance use, academic, occupational and military achievement, romantic relationships, and religious and civic involvement. The CDP database provides an unusually dense array of theoretically important, phenotypic measures over a long span of development. This richness of phenotypes makes the genetic information available in the sample particularly valuable for studying how these genes impact developmental pathways. Other PIs: Ken Dodge & Jen Lansford (Duke); Jack Bates (Indiana University); Greg Petit (Auburn).

The MYS is designed to identify the life course trajectories of adolescents (aged 10-18) living in poverty in the Mobile-Prichard inner city area of Alabama. The MYS has been administered in a group-format for the past eight summers and examines a number of psychosocial variables including risk behaviors (e.g., violence and aggressive behavior, alcohol and drug use, sexual behavior), family factors (e.g., family structure and parental monitoring), and neighborhood factors (e.g., support from neighborhood). During the past six years nearly 6,000 different adolescents have been surveyed. In 2008, we obtained a grant to collect DNA and more extensive phenotypic measures on a subsample of ~700 MYS participants ages 14-18. These youth were also part of a ‘natural experiment’ in which a random subset of families were relocated to better housing make possible by a government grant. The MYS sample is a unique resource for extending our understanding of the risks associated with identified genes, both in the sense that it is a largely African-American sample, an under-represented population in genetic studies, and an impoverished sample, making it possible to study how extreme environmental conditions, such as poverty, may alter the importance/expression of individual genetic predispositions and/or the role of other important environmental factors, such as family and peer variables. Other PIs: Brian Mustanski (Univ of Illinois, Chicago), John Bolland (Univ of Alabama).

ALSPAC has followed a large epidemiological cohort of ~14,000 children (with DNA on 10,000) and their parents from early in the mother’s pregnancy through childhood and adolescence, with subjects now commencing evaluations at age 17. The project has collected comprehensive health-related information, including phenotypic outcomes, environmental factors, and DNA, with >85 assessments from mothers, their partners, and children, conducted from the pre-natal stage through age 17 at yearly, or more frequent, intervals. We are funded to collect alcohol-related information at the age 18 and 22 year assessments, assessing key constructs such as quantity/frequency/density of alcohol use and AUD symptoms, other drug use and antisocial behavior, as well as related constructs of importance, including peer group deviance, pro-social behaviors, other risk-taking behaviors, religious involvement, parent-child relations and monitoring (if respondent is still living at home), attitudes to and expectancies from alcohol use as well as measures of major life transitions such as moving out of the childhood home, work experience, attendance at university, romantic relationships/marriage, and child-bearing. Accordingly, with its detailed and frequent phenotypic assessments, the ALSPAC cohort provides a unique opportunity to clarify, in a developmental context, the complex web of susceptibility and protective factors for alcohol use and the development of alcohol-related problems. PI and contact: Alexis Edwards.

The Irish Affected Sip-Pair Study of Alcohol Dependence (IASPSAD, sometimes referred to as the Irish Ethanol or IRETOH study) sampled sib-pairs affected with severe DSM-IV Alcohol Dependence from inpatient treatment facilities in Ireland and Northern Ireland. This resource is a GWAS dataset for 706 related severely-affected cases of DSM-IV Alcohol Dependence and 1755 controls. Controls are anonymous blood donors who deny any history of mental illness or substance use problems. Data were collected on the Affymetrix V6.0 array. Because AD case array data were collected separately from controls, BEAGLECALL was used to call genotypes. After rigorous QC, the sample was imputed to the 1000 Genomes reference. This is the publication dataset from PMID: 28226201.PI and contact: Brien Riley.

The Irish Schizophrenia Genomics Consortium is a collaboration between VCU and Trinity College Dublin. The ISGC includes several independent cohorts. VCU provided the Irish Case/Control Study of Schizophrenia (ICCSS) sample, while Trinity provided the Genetic Association Study of Psychosis (GASP) sample and the Resource for Psychosis Genomics Ireland (RPGI) sample. Cases were ascertained in public and private treatment facilities in Ireland and Northern Ireland for a diagnosis of schizophrenia or poor-outcome schizoaffective disorder. Controls are anonymous blood donors who deny any history of mental illness or substance use problems. This resource is a GWAS dataset for 1606 cases and 1794 controls. Data were collected on the Affymetrix V6.0 array. Because array data were collected separately in two waves, BEAGLECALL was used to call genotypes. After rigorous QC, the sample was imputed to the 1000 Genomes reference. This is the publication dataset from PMID: 22883433. Additional cases were collected during the GWAS funding period, and were later genotyped on the PsychArray. After QC and imputation, these additional data have been added to the original published dataset. PI and contact: Brien Riley.

The Irish Study of High Density Schizophrenia Families (ISHDSF) sample was collected in the late 1980s and early 1990s for linkage studies. Pedigrees were ascertained for two or more members having a diagnosis of schizophrenia; many other diagnoses are present in relatives, as expected. GWAS data were collected as part of the collaborative family study of schizophrenia led by Doug Levinson. This resource is a GWAS dataset for 843 individuals from 237 multiplex schizophrenia pedigrees. Data were collected using the Illumina 610 QUAD array. After rigorous QC, the sample was imputed to the 1000 Genomes reference. This is the publication dataset included in PMID: 22885689. Additional family members were later genotyped on the PsychArray. After QC and imputation, these additional data have been added to the original published dataset.PI and contact: Brien Riley.

The MIRT study is a longitudinal pilot study of the genetic and environmental factors related to depression, inflammation, and diabetes risk in mid-life. The sample consists of monozygotic twins discordant for history of depression who do not currently have diabetes recruited from the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry. Overall, 43 complete pairs aged 40 – 70 were interviewed. Participants underwent a complete clinical examination (blood pressure, adiposity, and venipuncture to assess glucose, HbA1c, insulin and pre- and anti-inflammatory biomarkers, as well as mRNA to assess expression of immune-related genes) at the VCU Clinical Research Center (CRC) and completed in-person interviews (~90 minutes long) which assessed family history, personality, lifetime history of major depression using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, stressful life events, coping, health behaviors, social relationships, and early life adversity. All of these procedures were repeated 6-months later, making this both a within-person and between-person/within-pair design. For more information please contact the MIRT Study PI, Dr. Briana Mezuk.

The Nineteen and Up study (19Up) assessed a range of mental health and behavioural problems and associated risk factors in a genetically informative Australian cohort of young adult twins and their non-twinsiblings. As such, 19Up enables detailed investigation of genetic and environmental pathways to mental illness and substance misuse within the Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Sample (BLTS). Subjects include twins and their non-twin siblings from Queensland, Australia; the majority with European ancestry. Data were collected between 2009 and 2016 on 2,773 participants (age range 18-38, 57.8% female, 369 complete monozygotic twin pairs, 494 dizygotic pairs, 640 non-twin siblings). PI and contact: Nathan Gillespie.

Genome sequence data are complete at deCODE for 1368 members of the ISHDSF multiplex schizophrenia pedigrees and are currently in production for ~2500 sporadic schizophrenia cases from the Irish Schizophrenia Genomics Consortium sample. 2000 population controls (anonymous blood donors who deny any history of mental illness or substance use problems) were previously sequenced by a private Irish biotech firm, Genuity (formerly Genomic Medicine Ireland). The complete dataset is expected to be ready for analysis in 2023. PI and contact: Brien Riley.

UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing genetic, lifestyle and health information from half a million UK participants. UK Biobank’s database, which includes blood samples, heart and brain scans and genetic data of the 500,000 volunteer participants, is globally accessible to approved researchers who are undertaking health-related research that’s in the public interest. UK Biobank recruited 500,000 people aged between 40-69 years in 2006-2010 from across the UK. With their consent, they provided detailed information about their lifestyle, physical measures and had blood, urine and saliva samples collected and stored for future analysis. Data browser: https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/showcase. Data accessed under UK Biobank Resource application number 30782, PIs B. Todd Webb and Roseann E. Peterson.