NEW YORK – Vibrent Health said Tuesday that it has partnered with Virginia Commonwealth University to launch a new research platform aimed at helping researchers study the genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in twins.
Operating in collaboration with VCU Wright Center, the Global Twin Research Platform consolidates data from otherwise disconnected twin registries, offering researchers access to larger combined datasets.
Vibrent said the platform builds on its ongoing work with the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program, for which it provides the central software technology platform and digital tools supporting recruitment, data collection, engagement, and retention of participants.
"Launching of a digital platform for twin research was a natural progression for Vibrent as we pursue our mission to help generate and analyze massive data sets to advance precision medicine," Vibrent CEO Praduman Jain said in a statement.
The company said the GTRP provides broad software capabilities for participants, researchers, sponsors, and regulatory bodies. It enables data collection from participants' health information through e-consent, surveys, electronic health records, remote biospecimens, wearables, and other devices.
"The virtual nature of digital research, utilizing mobile devices or computers from anywhere, allows us to engage twins for decentralized studies around the globe," Judy Silberg, scientific director of VCU's Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry, said in a statement. "The interoperability of the [GTRP] platform with many broad sources of data represents novel advancements in twin research."