Sesam Watch (Beobachtungen und Notizen zum Schweizer NCCR "Sesam", der 3'000 Kinder und ihr Umfeld vom ersten Ultraschallbild an 20 Jahre lang beobachten wollte (vorzeitiger Abbruch: 13.3.08). Autonom, skeptisch, ehrenamtlich. Kontakt: sesamwatch@gmail.com) : Rubrik:Geistesverwandte

Sesam "on the road"

patpatpat — 2006-04-15T22:18:00Z

Da wird Sesam offenbar mit einem Poster (Kurzpräsentation auf Stellwand) präsent sein:

The Centre for Longitudinal Studies, which is responsible for the UK Millennium Birth Cohort Study, and the British birth cohorts of 1958 and 1970, is organising an international conference at St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 12 to 14 September 2006. The conference will focus on the international experience of large-scale birth cohort studies which were started around the turn of the new millennium, i.e. studies whose subjects were born within a decade either side of 2000, and who have so far only been observed as children. The object of the conference is to promote communication and comparison between those designing, conducting and analysing such surveys in different countries.

Was essen Jugendliche?

patpatpat — 2006-02-13T11:15:22Z

Dieser Frage geht diesen Sommer das Projekt HELENA nach:

(alphagalileo) Rund 3.500 Jugendliche aus ganz Europa helfen im kommenden Sommer und Herbst der Wissenschaft: Sie füllen Fragebögen aus, erzählen, was sie zu Fetten, Vitaminen und Kalorien wissen, lassen ihre Fitness testen und spenden sogar ein paar Milliliter Blut. An der von der Europäischen Kommission geförderten Untersuchung sind 25 wissenschaftliche Institute aus zehn Ländern beteiligt. Deutschland wird durch das Forschungsinstitut für Kinderernährung Dortmund und das Institut für Ernährungs- und Lebensmittelwissenschaften der Universität Bonn vertreten. Die Forscher wollen mehr über Lebensstil und Ernährungsgewohnheiten von Jugendlichen in Europa erfahren, aber auch über genetische Faktoren, die die Anfälligkeit für Krankheiten wie Diabetes erhöhen.
Der Name des Projekts ist Programm: Die HELENA-Studie (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence; zu deutsch: gesunder Lebensstil in Europa durch adäquate Ernährungsweise in der Jugend) [aufgenommen in Linksammlung] will nicht zuletzt die Basis zu einer gesunderen Lebensweise von Jugendlichen legen. Gerade in der Pubertät findet die Botschaft ernähre dich gesund wenig Anklang, bedauert Dr. Mathilde Kersting vom Forschungsinstitut für Kinderernährung Dortmund. Das ist besonders schade, weil viele lebenslange Angewohnheiten aus dieser Lebensphase stammen. Ziel der HELENA-Studie ist es daher unter anderem, ein computergestütztes Lernprogramm zu entwickeln, das Jugendliche über eine gesunde Lebensweise aufklärt und für diese Zielgruppe auch attraktiv ist.

GB + USA verfolgen 1 Million Menschen

patpatpat — 2006-01-20T19:32:49Z

(New Scientist, 20.1.06) YOU might donate blood to help save someone's life. But would you donate your blood, your DNA, and your most intimate medical secrets on a promise that it may help save a life years from now?
Half a million people will be expected to do just that in the coming months, with another half a million people to follow, as two huge medical research projects get under way in the UK and US. The British project, called Biobank, is due to start within weeks, after five years of preparation. The American project, announced in 2004 by the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, is still at the planning stage.
Both of the projects aim to revolutionise medical research by gathering information that will allow scientists to study in unprecedented depth how our genes and environment interact over the years to cause disease. That could one day lead to new treatments for disorders such as cancer, heart disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. But the projects are not without their critics, who say they could produce misleading results and raise fundamental questions about who should own our medical details and have access to them. These details not only document our medical past, but might also reveal which medical conditions we and our relatives are likely to suffer from in the future.
(...) In both studies, volunteers will be required to give open-ended consent for their records and samples to be used in any study, regardless of what it is researching. So, for example, if Biobank's ethics board approves, an individual's medical details might one day be used to study controversial areas of research, such as the genetics of antisocial behaviour or intelligence, despite each volunteer not being aware in advance that this may happen. (...)

Die Website von BioBank:

The project will follow the health of 500,000 volunteers for up to 30 years, collecting information on environmental and lifestyle factors and linking these to medical records and biological samples. The samples will be stored so that they can be used for biochemical and genetic analysis in the future.

UK Biobank is a long-term project aimed at building a comprehensive resource for medical researchers. The full project will get underway in 2006, when it will begin to gather information on the health and lifestyle of 500,000 volunteers aged between 40 and 69.

Following consent, each participant will be asked to donate a blood and urine sample and complete a confidential lifestyle questionnaire. Over the next 20 to 30 years UK Biobank will allow fully approved researchers to use these resources to study the progression of illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimers disease. From this they hope to develop new and better ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating such problems.