CANADIAN LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON AGING

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From 1977 to 2017, the senior population in Canada, i.e., people aged 65 and older, grew unprecedentedly from 2 million to 6.2 million, which equaled to nearly 17% of its population size. However, this number is still rapidly rising. It is anticipated that by 2036 there will be 10.2 million senior people in Canada. In another word, in every 4 Canadians, there will be one senior person.

Aged people experience progressive decline in functional integrity and homeostasis. This process is accompanied by increased risk of neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease and cancer among many other diseases, which have become the most common causes of decreased life quality and late-life mortality. It adds substantial burden to individual and social health care system inadvertently.

The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is a large, national, long-term study of more than 50,000 individuals who were between the ages of 45 and 85 when recruited. These participants will be followed until 2033 or death. The aim of the CLSA is to find ways to help us live long and live well, and understand why some people age in healthy fashion while others do not.

Our group applied whole genome genotyping method to the DNA extracted from the CLSA participants’ blood samples. The genotyping is done by using Affymetrix Genetitan Multi-Channel Instrument. The data quality control is conducted by using the high-performance computation resources at McGill Genome Centre. Corinne Darmond, Rui Li and other former members of our group participated in this project.

CLSA project is a collaborative effort with many researchers across Canada from McGill University, Montréal Heart Institute, McMaster University, University of Toronto and Dalhousie University among others. The CLSA genomic data can be linked to physical, lifestyle, medical, economic, environmental, and psychosocial factors collected longitudinally in CLSA. What is learned from the CLSA over the coming years will help to improve the lives of people in Canada and around the world. It will touch all generations, changing the way we live and approach growing older.

Read more at: CLSA-ELCV

COLLABORATORS

Vincenzo Forgetta - Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital
Cynthia Balion - McMaster University
Delnaz Roshandel - The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children
Christina Wolfson - McGill University
Guillaume Lettre - Montréal Heart Institute and Université de Montréal
Guillaume Pare - McMaster University
Andrew D. Paterson - The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto
Lauren E. Griffith - McMaster University
Chris Verschoor - McMaster University
Susan Kirkland - Dalhousie University
Parminder Raina - McMaster University
Brent Richards - Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital and McGill University

OUR TEAM

Rui Li, PhD
Corinne Darmond