Subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are considered to be at high risk for a severe course of the disease caused by Covid-19. They were instructed to stay home and practice social distancing earlier than the general Dutch population. However, it is unclear whether patients with COPD are also more susceptible to the Covid-19 virus and whether environmental factors play a role in susceptibility and progression of Covid-19 related symptoms. We will study this in the Lifelines population.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) causes an increasing global health burden. The pathophysiological processes that cause T2D are chronic and complex. Many recently discovered biomarkers may provide biological clues for T2D. Whether these biological clues are causal or not will provide information to prevent T2D at a very early stage and to develop new targeted personalized interventions in high-risk individuals. Classical association analysis in humans cannot distinguish between cause and consequence. For that, ?Mendelian randomization? is the emerging concept. The idea is that if a biomarker is causally associated with T2D, the genetic variants associated with the biomarker shall also be involved in development of T2D. since genetic variants (a) are randomly assigned to individuals at the time of conception independent from confounders (randomization) and (b) the causal path runs from genes to outcome (T2D) and not the other way around. This strategy will be used to evaluate the causality of recently discovered biomarkers in four large English and Dutch cohorts, which guarantees adequate power and high quality replication of our findings. Second, reverse mendelian randomization on novel genetic variants is used to discover new biomarkers for T2D.

The collection of big data, i.e. the integration of personalized databases on various dimensions, including demographic data, consumer preferences, and mobile phone numbers, has important societal and individual benefits. Although it concerns innovative knowledge to serve a public good, it also relates to questions of individual integrity and depends heavily on the willingness of people to share information and to accept a central registration. Recently, many discussions have been reported on the usage of big data, which may make people feel vulnerable. In the present study it is argued that both ethical (consent, confidentiality, access, social value) and psychological dimensions (feelings of threat, trust in public institutions, social identification, normative beliefs) are related to these feelings of vulnerability and individual perceptions on big data, and hence may affect the innovative possibilities of big data. We aim to unravel these dimensions by means of qualitative and quantitative research methods among participants of the LifeLines biobank, a large population study in the Netherlands, and a selection of participants who withdraw from participation in LifeLines. This will be in close collaboration with ERCET (European Research Center for Exascale Technology), a program of IBM and University of Groningen. Based on these data generated in face-to-face interviews and written questionnaires, brainstorm sessions will be held with respondents about innovative ways to stimulate sharing and usage of personal data. Together with different companies, these approaches will be tested within LifeLines, to be able to conclude on how society, and more specific health research and innovation, can benefit from the implementation of these innovative approaches.

Recent years have seen a growing number of studies on the genetic basis of risk behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol and drug use, and delinquency, showing cumulative evidence that genetic disposition helps explaining individual variation in engagement in risk behaviors, particularly in interplay with the (social) environment. In adolescence, the peer environment constitutes one of the most important contexts for social and emotional development, especially with regard to risk behaviors (Bukowski et al., 2006). Strikingly, there is little genetically informed research on adolescents? development in the peer context. Only a handful of studies have examined the gene-environment interplay in relation to the peer context, using a candidate genes approach. Whereas these studies provide valuable results into how genetic dispositions may affect adolescents? behaviors in relation to peer behaviors and experiences, they suffer from important weaknesses. Most prominently, they rely on adolescents? self-reports of their friends? behaviors, which are subject to a false consensus bias. Moreover, many studies are limited to cross-sectional associations between the behaviors of peers and adolescents, which does not reveal whether similarity emerges from the selection of similar peers (i.e., selection processes) or adaptation of peers? behaviors (i.e., influence processes). Methodological advancements in longitudinal social network analysis enable a more precise and objective assessment of these processes. This approach has proven superior in capturing the complexity and richness of the peer context, yielding a rapidly growing number of studies on selection and influence processes regarding risk behaviors. Although research on genetic antecedents of behavior and social network modeling have independently proven their merits in elucidating why adolescents engage in risk behaviors, data on genetic factors in combination with longitudinal social network information is to date lacking entirely. The aim of this investment is to bridge both promising lines of research by obtaining genotypic information within SNARE (Social Network Analysis of Risk behavior in Early adolescence), an ongoing study on the development of adolescents? risk behavior including longitudinal information about adolescents? social networks. SNARE is conducted among first and second year students of the by far largest school for secondary education in a region in the northern part of the Netherlands with four different locations, covering all academic tracks (N = 1,100) (97% participation rate). Targeting all students in this school resulted in the inclusion of the largest possible number of respondents and their potential peers between 12 and 16 years. The sample is ethnically homogenous (96% Caucasian), which makes it very well-suited for examining genetic effects. Integrating genetic research with longitudinal social network modeling yields an internationally unique opportunity to examine to what extent genetic dispositions interplay with the peer context in explaining the development and social consequences of adolescents? risk behaviors, putting this dataset at the forefront of research on adolescents? development in the fields of behavioral genetics, developmental psychology, criminology, education, and sociology.

The value of logistics manifests itself mainly in its role as facilitator for all kinds of economic sectors and thereby contributes to the well-being of our society. One of those sectors, the healthcare sector, is in need of logistics innovations to support its transition towards more extramural care and cure services. People increasingly receive care at home and in extramural care institutions, and progressively gain control over the care they need. Without a good logistics system, however, the healthcare sector won’t be able to deliver the right care and cure, and will become too expensive to take care of the future generations at the required quality level. In addition, healthcare organizations are faced with shortages of care professionals, further highlighting the need to organize non-care related work as efficiently as possible. The multitude of organizations supplying specific healthcare products and services need to be innovative to meet the increasingly complex demands of individual clients, rather than those of the large-scale healthcare institutions’ as they are used to now. In terms of logistics, this means not simply doing things more efficiently, but also smarter, more creatively and more sustainable. The transition in the healthcare sector shows strong resemblance with recent changes in the retail landscape. This proposal connects knowledge institutions, SMEs and professionals in healthcare and logistics, and links to TKI Logistics, TKI Life Sciences & Health and relevant NWA routes. The proposal contributes to the Cross Chain Collaboration Centers (4C) of TKI Logistics, striving to strengthen the Dutch position in supply chain management and chain configuration in the healthcare sector. It proposes and examines how new logistics concepts can support the transition in healthcare, and identifies how logistics can be organized more efficiently and sustainably within and between healthcare actors.