Services for science
The Helmholtz-Zentrum München (formerly known as GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health in Germany) has established the population-based KORA research platform (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg, Southern Germany) which has evolved from the WHO MONICA study (Monitoring of Trends and Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease). The infrastructure is used by several Helmholtz Zentrum München institutes and their partners. In a large number of collaborative projects a broad spectrum of scientific questions has been analyzed.
In total, four population based health surveys have been conducted between 1984 and 2000 with 18000 participants in the age range of 25 to 74 years, and a biological specimen bank was established in order to enable scientists to perform epidemiologic research with respect to molecular and genetic questions. The KORA study center conducts regular follow-up investigations and has collected a wealth of information on sociodemography, general medical history, environmental factors, smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and various laboratory parameters. This unique resource will be increased further by follow-up studies of the cohort.
To learn more about KORA and GWA's, please read:
KORA - a success story for genome-wide association studies (.pdf).
