The Sri Lankan Twin Registry
Become a member of the Sri Lankan Twin Registry
The Sri Lankan Twin registry established in 1996 is the first ever twin register in South Asia. It is still one the of few large scale functional population based twin registries in developing world!
Why are twins important?
Twin studies are considered to be the gold standard to investigate the degree to which characteristics and disorders are passed down through the generations.
Studying twins enables researchers to learn more about how a person’s environment (lifestyle, diet) and their genetics have an impact on certain diseases and conditions.
Who should join?
Twins of all ages and genders in Sri Lanka can join the SLTR. It does not matter if you are identical, non-identical, male, female, opposite gender pairs, and your health status does not matter either.
Parents can even register their children and new born babies. Children of all ages can join but must be registered by their parents if they are under 18 years of age.
“If you are a twin, we would like to invite you to join the Sri Lankan Twin Registry.”
Our humble journey through the years
1997
SLTR Establishment
2006
A population-based twin register was established in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka using infrastructure designed to periodically update the electoral register. We invited a subsample from this register to participate in the project on common mental disorders, using random ascertainment. A separate non-twin sample was randomly selected from the geographical areas where twins were found.
2012
CoTaSS 2 aims are to study the prevalence of depression and component phenotypes of metabolic syndrome as well as estimating the heritability of depression and exploring the genetic architecture of metabolic syndrome.
2019
The main focus of this project is to establish a register of infant, child and adolescent twins, and mothers pregnant with twins in Sri Lanka to be approached for future research in Sri Lanka with a long term vision is to increase the amount of research that can have an influence on health and social care in Sri Lanka and South Asia.
2021
To understand the mechanisms by which parental diet impacts child nutritional choices and metabolic risk factors
2023
Social Media Twin engagement campaign
Increase visisblity and engagment of the Twin Registry