This application is to provide for the continued implementation of a Repository of serum, plasma, urine, DNA and transformed b-lymphocytes generated from the SWAN population of women transitioning the menopause. The initial ? five years of Repository funding was focused on coalescing specimens from clinics and laboratories (now more than 950,000 specimens), building a DNA Repository (which now includes DNA as well as immortalized cells from more than 1700 participants), and building the infrastructure to begin developing new data from Repository specimens. The proposed funding will sustain these biological specimens, support the integration of additional specimens from the next 3 rounds of the parent SWAN program, link specimens to already collected data (7 years currently), provide a mechanism for developing new information from these specimens, and make the newly developed data from the ? Repository available to the scientific community. ? ? In addition to extending the previous activities, new aims of this application are to 1) support more extensive use of the Repository resources by promoting the awareness of the specimens and the availability of specimens to scientists, optimizing the adjudication of resource utilization and developing a plan for the ongoing maintenance of the Repository functions at the end of the proposed funding period. 2) develop and sustain ethics/public service activities as well as quantitative capacity for development of new science from the specimens. This will include a statistical genetics ? consultant (Dr. Sharon Kardia) to facilitate the extended use of genetics data and a biostatistical consultant (Dr. Sybil Crawford) to support longitudinal analyses specifically for the specimens from the longitudinal Daily Hormone Study (i.e, monthly longitudinal studies nested within a 6-year longitudinal study). ? ? Funding this Repository will allow the ongoing maintenance and utilization of the already collected specimens for the greater scientific community, provide for the incorporation of specimens from SWAN III Follow-ups 8-10, and build an independent research resource through transformed cells and their derived products as well as from the data developed from using Repository specimens. ? ?
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