Measurement of steroid hormones in hair samples

BACKGROUND Based at the University of Bristol, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), is a world-leading birth cohort study. More than 14,000 pregnant women were recruited into the study between April 1991 and December 1992. These women, the children arising from the pregnancy and now also their grandchildren have been followed up in detail ever since. ALSPAC is one of the most detailed studies of its kind in the world, providing the international research community with a rich resource for the study of the environmental and genetic factors that affect a person's health and development. The ALSPAC web site describes the cohort and available data (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/), and hosts data documentation and catalogues. The ALSPAC access policy details how data can be accessed by researchers (http://www. bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/dataaccess/).

REQUIREMENT Funding has been secured from the Medical Research Foundation and Medical Research Council to measure steroid hormones from historic hair samples collected when ALSPAC child participants were approximately 15 years old. These new measures will be integrated into the larger ALSPAC dataset providing an invaluable resource for researchers investigating the most pressing health questions of our time.

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