{"id":88,"date":"2023-08-07T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sltr.local\/?page_id=88"},"modified":"2025-04-07T06:17:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T06:17:50","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/about-us\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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25 Years Old<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan Twin Registry (SLTR) is delighted to celebrate its 25th anniversary of advancing twin and genetic research in Sri Lanka and beyond. Established in 1997, SLTR is the first a twin registry in South Asia and one of the few large-scale population-based twin registries in the developing world. SLTR has been involved in various research projects on health, education, and social sciences, using the unique advantages of twin studies. SLTR has also been fostering collaborations among local and international researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and communities to address the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development. As we commemorate this milestone, we express our gratitude to all our members, partners, donors, staff, and stakeholders who have supported us throughout our journey. We look forward to continuing our mission of generating and disseminating knowledge that contributes to the well-being of humanity.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Timeline<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Inception<\/strong><\/h4>

Based on a proposal by Dr. Athula Sumathipala, Professor Devaka Fernando Dr. Sisira Siribaddana and Dr. Nihal Abeysingha formed a working group.<\/p>

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Ethical approval<\/strong><\/h4>

Professor Devaka Fernando and Dr. Athula Sumathipala obtained ethical clearance from the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. Dr. Alison McDonald, in charge of the twin registers at the Institute of Psychiatry, London and Dr. Sumathipala jointly obtained ethical clearance from the ethical committee at the Institute of Psychiatry, to establish collaborative support for the project.<\/p>

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Supervisory Committee<\/strong><\/h4>

Professor Devaka Fernando invited Professor Rohan Jayasekera to the group. A committee comprising of Dr. Nihal Abeysingha, Prof. Rohan Jayasekera, Dr. Sisira Siribaddana, Professor Devaka Fernando and Dr. Athula Sumathipala was then established. These 5 members founded the Registry in 1996 and became the Project Supervisory Committee. Professor Devaka Fernando became the Director.<\/p>

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Funding and Supporting<\/strong><\/h4>

A large number of leading international twin researchers\u00a0welcomed\u00a0this initiative. Being a new initiative, the required funding was the hardest. We appealed for support from non-charitable business organisations in the form of donations or sponsorship. Two leading national newspapers, in Sri Lanka offered free newspaper advertisements for the twin competition.<\/p>

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3 March 1997<\/div>

Launching the project<\/strong><\/h4>

The launching of the project took place during the 110th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), 1997 March. A working document as a summery brochure was published. Following the launch, Professor Devaka Fernando introduced Dr. Vajira Dissanayake to the Project Supervisory Committee. He designed the web site. Project Supervisory Committee invited the Sri Lanka Medical Association to provide ethical and monetary supervision. The SLMA accepted the invitation and appointed 5 members. A Chairman was appointed to this Project Supervisory Committee, which became the SLMA Committee on twin research. The Committee decided to accept the donation from Gemini Research UK, with no conditions attached. The Human Genetics Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo extended its academic collaboration and support by offering space and other facilities, strengthening the effort further.<\/p>

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3 March 1997<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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1999<\/div>

Resignations and new appointments<\/strong><\/h4>

In 1999 Professor Rohan Jayasekera and Dr. Vajira Dissanayake submitted resignation from the Committee and after negotiations the SLMA council accepted the resignations. Dr Deepthi De Silva and Professor Narada Warnasuriya were appointed to the committee. Dr. Sisira Siribaddana was appointed as the new Director.<\/p>

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1999<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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August 2000<\/div>

Independence<\/strong><\/h4>

In August 2000, the SLMA granted independence to the Registry, as the SLMA felt that it was not able to undertake a project of this magnitude. However, the SLMA committee on ethics will continue to assist the Registry.<\/p>

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August 2000<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2005<\/div>


Colombo Twin and Singleton Study – CoTaSS 1<\/strong><\/h4>

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.<\/p>

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2005<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2012<\/div>


Colombo Twin and Singleton Study – CoTaSS 2<\/strong><\/h4>

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.<\/p>

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2012<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2019<\/div>


Establishment of Child and Adoloscent Twin registry<\/strong><\/h4>

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.\u00a0<\/p>

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2019<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2022<\/div>


Colombo Twin and Singleton Study – CoTaSS 3<\/strong><\/h4>

To understand the mechanisms by which parental diet impacts child nutritional choices and metabolic risk factors<\/p>

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2022<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2023<\/div>



Social Media Twin engagement campaign<\/strong><\/h4>

Increase visisblity and engagment of the Twin Registry\u00a0<\/p>

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2023<\/div><\/article>\n\n\n\n
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2025<\/div>

Twin Congress 2025
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The joint 8th World Congress on Twin Pregnancy and 20th Congress of the International Society of Twin Studies (ISTS) to be hosted by IRD in Sri Lanka<\/p>

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2025<\/div><\/article>\n
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25 Years Old The Sri Lankan Twin Registry (SLTR) is delighted to celebrate its 25th anniversary of advancing twin and genetic research in Sri Lanka and beyond. Established in 1997, SLTR is the first a twin registry in South Asia and one of the few large-scale population-based twin registries in the developing world. SLTR has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126,"parent":517,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-88","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"ta","enabled_languages":["en","si","ta"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"si":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ta":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2.jpg",1280,710,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2-300x166.jpg",300,166,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2-768x426.jpg",640,355,true],"large":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2-1024x568.jpg",640,355,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2.jpg",1280,710,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/twinregistry-2.jpg",1280,710,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"25 Years Old The Sri Lankan Twin Registry (SLTR) is delighted to celebrate its 25th anniversary of advancing twin and genetic research in Sri Lanka and beyond. Established in 1997, SLTR is the first a twin registry in South Asia and one of the few large-scale population-based twin registries in the developing world. SLTR has been…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions\/2560"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sltr.ird.lk\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}