广州出生队列研究项目进展
广州市妇女儿童医疗中心主持的广州出生队列研究拟对在广州市分娩的50,000名孕妇及其所生儿童进行长期的随访，并建立中国最大的正常人群亲子生物样品库，运用流行病学研究方法，探讨影响广州地区儿童和妇女健康的主要因素，测量社会、经济、文化、生物、环境等因素在影响这一弱势群体中的作用及其作用机理，从而验证一系列不良妊娠结局和儿童期疾病的病因假设，为提出改善儿童和妇女健康状况的干预措施提供科学依据，同时为改善医疗卫生服务，制定相关的医疗服务指南及政策提供依据。
广州出生队列项目于2012年2月正式启动，截止至2019年12月，已招募入组43,133名孕妇，并如期随访。现已出生36,970名儿童，其中双胞胎823对，三胞胎3对。入库各类标本（外周血、脐血、脐带、胎盘、干血片）230万余份。
队列日常运营管理水平达到国际同类队列水平，入组率达70%，综合运用微博、博客、QQ群、短信平台、微信公众号管理人群，各期随访率保持较高水平。按国际标准建成百万级生物样本库，拥有38台超低温冰箱和24台大型液氮储存箱。开发了具有自主知识产权的出生队列信息管理系统，实现全流程信息化管理，生物样品可视化管理。
出生队列研究平台支撑了30余项重大科研项目，累计获科研资助超过3000万元，包括国家自然科学基金10项，国家科技部重点专项子课题4项，广东省科技项目7项、广州市重大科技专项8项，盖茨基金会、欧盟等国际合作项目3项。2012年以来发表SCI论文50篇。
出生队列已成为我院重要的对外学术交流合作平台，与多个世界一流的机构和大学建立战略合作伙伴关系，如比尔盖茨基金会、英国牛津大学等。每年组织学术交流30余次，与英国牛津大学、伯明翰大学、加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学和香港大学等进行定期交流；每年选派研究人员出国学习、参加学术会议超20人次；与英国牛津大学共同培养累计4名硕士研究生，以及接收英国伯明翰大学的2名博士研究生和1名硕士研究生现场实习。依托广州出生队列平台，我中心与英国伯明翰大学携手设立广州-伯明翰出生队列与疾病队列联合研究中心。
Project Progress
The Born in Guangzhou Cohort Study (BIGCS), hosted by the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center (GWCMC), intends to follow up 50,000 pregnant women and their children for a long term and to establish the largest family biobank in Chinese natural population. It uses epidemiological methods to explore the factors influencing maternal and child health in Guangzhou. By measuring social, economic, cultural, biological, and environmental factors in this specific population and investigating the mechanisms of their effects, the study is able to test a series of hypotheses regarding adverse pregnancy outcomes and childhood diseases, providing scientific evidence for interventions to improve maternal and child health. It can also contribute to the improvement of healthcare services and the development of health guidelines and policies.
The BIGCS was launched in February 2012. By December 2019, 43,133 pregnant women have been recruited and regularly followed up. There have been 36,970 newly born children, including 823 pairs of twins and 3 triplet. Over 2.3 million aliquots of biological specimens (including peripheral blood, cord blood, umbilical cord, placenta, and dried blood spots) have been stored in the biobank.
The operation and management of the BIGCS have been comparable with those of other similar cohorts in the world, with the recruitment rate up to 70%. The team integrate the use of Weibo, QQ groups, SMS platforms, and Wechat public accounts to manage the participants, with the follow-up rate maintained on a high level. A million-level biobank has been built according to international standards, with 38 ultra-low temperature freezers and 24 large liquid nitrogen storage tanks. An information management system has been developed with independent intellectual property rights, allowing for informationized management of the whole process and visualized management of biological specimens.
As a research platform, the BIGCS has supported over 30 major research projects, with total research funding of over 30 million RMB, including 10 projects from the Natural Science Foundation of China, 4 projects from Ministry of Science and Technology, 7 provincial science and technology projects, 8 municipal key science and technology projects, and 3 international cooperative projects with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union. A total of 50 SCI-indexed papers have been published since 2012.
The BIGCS has become an important platform for international exchanges and collaborations at the GWCMC. Collaborative relationships have been established with a number of world-class organizations and universities such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Oxford, etc. The BIGCS organizes academic exchanges for over 30 times annually and maintains regular academic exchanges with the University of Oxford, the University of Birmingham, the University of British Columbia, the University of Hong Kong, etc. The BIGCS researchers are selected for overseas study and exchanges for over 20 person-times annually. The BIGCS is jointly training 2 doctoral students and 1 master students with the University of Birmingham and provided internship opportunities for 4 master students from the University of Oxford. Based on the BIGCS research platform, the GWCMC and the University of Birmingham have established the Guangzhou-Birmingham Joint Research Center for Birth Cohorts and Disease Cohorts.