This is the seventh consecutive Medical Research Council (MRC) grant for the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), totalling 35 years of continuous funding.
The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is one of the world's leading twin studies and is the largest longitudinal twin birth cohort in the UK. It has followed twins born between 1994 and 1996 in England and Wales for over 30 years, from early childhood, through adolescence and into early adulthood. The funding from the MRC will allow TEDS to expand on this work for another five years.
The TEDS twins are now turning 30 and are fully engaged in adult life. Having spoken to several twins in preparation for this bid about what is important in their lives now, we are focusing on adult milestones such as stable housing and employment, and starting a family, as key areas for this new grant. We will also maintain our strong focus on mental health and wellbeing, as we know this is a challenge for their generation."
Professor Thalia Eley, Professor of Developmental Behavioural Genetics at King's College London and TEDS Principal Investigator.
Set up in 1995, TEDS' main goal is to better understand the role of genes and the environment in shaping who we are. The study was founded and developed by Professor Robert Plomin at King's College London, and is now led by Professor Thalia Eley, Head of Department at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.
TEDS initially recruited approximately 13,000 twin-pairs through national birth records and around 10,000 remain actively involved. For over 30 years, TEDS has been collecting questionnaire data from the twins, their parents and their teachers to capture aspects of participants' development, cognition and health.
A new element of the work has been linking the wealth of research data collected over the past 30 years with the twins' medical records. TEDS has also collected DNA samples from 12,500 twins which can be used together with the rest of the data to better understand how genes affect abilities and behaviours.
This is an important time for TEDS, with many participants becoming parents and signing up for the Children of TEDS (CoTEDS ) study. The intergenerational study is investigating how genetic and environmental influences on parent mental health and parenting influence child development. CoTEDS is the world's first-ever twin study including information of both twin parents and their offspring from birth.
Early adulthood is a pivotal age for the TEDS twins. This new MRC funding will allow researchers to study how life circumstances may affect mental health in adulthood in a generation navigating a rapidly changing world.
I have always loved taking part in TEDS. it is always interesting to see what the studies are and how they can help. Being a TEDS twin is so much fun and like a secret club that only you and fellow TEDS twins know about. This can be even more fun when you spot a fellow TEDS Twin in the Wild via the hoodies we all got a few years ago. TEDS also inspired me for my undergraduate dissertation in to looking in to twins how they were treated in Education and was also an amazing help with the research article bank online as well, as helping me contact fellow twins for their help.
Kayleigh, TEDS twin.
It's always fun to do the different research projects, doing the building blocks and booklets as children then advancing into the technological era and doing the programs and questionnaires on the computers.
Keira, TEDS twin.
Being involved with TEDS has always been a part of our lives growing up, and we're really proud to still be active participants in our 30s. Being a twin is something really special and we're pleased to be able to support research by taking part in TEDS. It's a small commitment, but something we genuinely enjoy and hope to continue for years to come!
Abi and Harriet, TEDS twins.
