Participants were asked to complete a health questionnaire and interview with a nurse, and to give samples of urine, serum and blood. A small fraction of the samples will be used for initial analyses but most will be stored in the GQ-CAURC Biobank. Physical measurements, such as weight, waist and hips circumference, bone density, arterial pressure and stiffness were also taken. Participants were also invited during the consent process to indicate if they wanted to be contacted again or if they wish to participate in the CARTaGENE genealogical option by answering another questionnaire at home. Bartha Knoppers, a McGill University Professor of Medicine and Director of the HumGen project, and Claude Laberge, a University of Laval Genetics professor were the the original principal investigators of the project and are members of the CARTaGENE team.

"Our next steps are to enhance the data," says Awadalla. "Working with our sister biobanks across Canada, we are following up participants to evaluate individual lifestyle impacts on health such as nutrition, residential and occupational history. We are also exploring how environment impacts how individuals genes are regulated, and the impact of this variation on chronic disease."

Randomly recruiting participants is key to understanding how the genome of each human being interacts with the environment to determine ones health status. The science of genomics is devoted to studying genomes and their interaction with environmental factors that influence our health. CARTaGENE is the largest project to date on the genome of the population of Qu-bec.

Partners in research

Many public institutions, organisms and projects are actively involved in the CARTaGENE project. The Universit- de Montr-al is responsible for the project as a whole. Financial support for CARTaGENE is mainly provided by Genome Canada and G-nome Qu-bec. The G-nome Qu-bec Centre hospitalier affili- universitaire r-gional de Chicoutimi Biobank (GQ-CAURC Biobank) is in charge of sample storage. The R-gie de l'assurance-maladie du Qu-bec (RAMQ) was involved in the selection and recruitment of participants. The Universit- du Qu-bec - Chicoutimi (UQAC) BALSAC Project will keep genealogical information and ensure its confidentiality.

Source: University of Montreal