HUNT Newsletter
Apply for HUNT Covid data
HUNT has been collecting health data for four decades, with the last full scale survey ending in 2019. This put us in a unique position when Covid struck in 2020, giving us the opportunity to examine health data from the same population before and after the pandemic.
Everyone who participated in HUNT4 were invited to fill in an electronic questionnaire from home and to meet at a field station in their municipality to give a blood sample.
- Number of total participants in all of Trøndelag: 67 978 (40 055 women, 27 923 men)
- Blood samples (north): 30,143 (17 586 women, 12 557 men)
- Questionnaires (north): 32 663 (19 100 women, 13 563 men)
- Both blood samples and questionnaires (north): 28 482 (16 718 women, 11 764 men)
- Questionnaires (south): 32 732 (19 525 women, 13 267 men)
- IgG for SARS-Cov-2
General topics in the questionnaires included mental health, diet, pain, exercise, participation in cultural activities, quality of life and living conditions, while more pandemic specific topics were social isolation, worries, work conditions and change of life situation caused by the pandemic. More information on HUNT Covid.
First project completed on MesoScaleQuickPlex
Chronic kidney diseases occur relatively frequently but are insufficiently explored and with limited treatment options. The gold standard is a kidney biopsy, but the Kidney Research Group at NTNU/St. Olavs Hospital is now investigating whether various biomarkers in the urine can give us some of the same information.
New and effective analysis platform
- In connection with a research collaboration with the University of California, we have therefore, together with HUNT Biobank, established a new analysis platform from Meso Scale Diagnostics, says Group Leader and professor Stein Ivar Hallan. This is an ELISA-like technique where, instead of a secondary antibody, you label with a molecule that emits light when current is sent through the well (electrochemiluminescence). This provides very good sensitivity and a very wide measurement range (0.1 - 1000 pg/mL), low background noise, simple procedure with few "washing steps" and fast reading, and you can measure up to 10 different biomarkers in the same well so that very little material is consumed. There are >600 different well-documented biomarkers in various fields such as inflammation, tissue damage, oncology, neurodegeneration, immunology, intracellular signaling, cardiovascular disease and metabolism. A number of different biological sample materials can be used, such as serum, plasma, urine, spinal fluid, tears, tissue extracts, cell lysates and so on.
Collaboration
- The method introduction has gone very well; there have been some minor problems, but the bioengineers at HUNT have solved this quickly together with the company representative from Copenhagen. The platform has very good quality in the analyses, we have been given opportunities to analyze a very wide range of proteins in different solutions, and not least we have been given the opportunity to do the analyzes here "at home in Trøndelag", Hallan points out. He also emphasizes that close contact with the laboratory is of great importance for quality and rapid implementation, and also results in lower costs than if the analysis were to be left to an external lab. He strongly encourages other research groups to use the platform available at HUNT Biobank.
The MesoScale QuickPlex analysis instrument is a user-friendly and efficient instrument, that only requires a small amount of sample. It has the ability to analyze several hundred different biomarkers, and perform several simultaneous tests on a single sample. More information about analyzes can be found here: Assay Kits | Meso Scale Discovery
December 2023
The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) is one of the largest longitudinal health studies ever performed. It is a unique database of questionnaire data, clinical measurements and samples from a county’s inhabitants going back to 1984. Today, HUNT Research Centre has a database with information on 250,000 people, certified in conformity with NS-EN ISO 9001:2015 since 2011.
HUNT5 - 2027-2029
Updated population data are in high demand, both by local and central health authorities, and in regards to research and community planning. Since the previous survey in 2017-2019 we have experienced major upheavals in Norway; the pandemic, the economy and other areas of societal concern, such as mental health, youth and the elderly. HUNT is therefore in the initial phase of planning our next population survey, HUNT5 (2027-2029).
Nordic Conference on Future Health
10-12 September, 2024
Trondheim, Norway
The Nordic biobanks and research communities join forces - to explore the future of biobanking and precision health. Biobank Norway invite you to beautiful, historic Trondheim for the landmark Nordic Conference on Future Health: Biobanks, Research, Innovation and Precision Medicine. This special stakeholder gathering encompasses two parallel conferences—the 3rd Nordic Society of Human Genetics and Precision Medicine and the 2nd Nordic Biobank Conference - as well as joint plenary sessions for topics of interest to both communities.
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Previous newsletters: 1/2023