Lots of Data and Some Confirmations

At the annual American Society of Human Genetics meeting, Kaiser Permanente researchers unveiled some initial results from its study of its combined medical and genetic biobank, reports ScienceInsider. The Kaiser Permanente biobank includes genetic marker and telomere length data from 100,000 adults from its California health system that is linked to de-identified medical information. From this data, Kaiser Permanente researchers confirmed a number of previously identified links between certain SNPs and disease risk and noted that telomeres of older people or people who smoke and drink tend to be shorter, ScienceInsider says. It did not, though, confirm a previous finding that exercise was linked to longer telomeres. The Kaiser Permanente researchers add that they will deposit their data in dbGAP.