There is increasing evidence that some individuals suffer long term symptoms after recovering from COVID-19 infection, which has led to the term “long-haul COVID” (a term coined by patients who suffer these symptoms who have connected to each other on social media). 

Twin360 is a research effort by scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) who want to get the full picture of the impact of COVID-19 on the health of twin families.  Twin360 analyzes long-term symptoms of COVID-19 that have been reported ranging across depression, exercise intolerance, weakness, and neurologic symptoms.

1,400+

Twins enrolled in the Twin360 study

97%

Of enrolled participants completed eConsent 

90.4%

Completed at least one survey

• eConsent 
• Surveys 
• Electronic health records (EHR) 
• Data harmonization with other novel datasets 
  

Research Impact: 

Twin360 utilizes the Mid Atlantic Twin Registry (MATR), a registry of over 55,000 twins, to survey twins on COVID infection across twins and development of long-term symptoms. This will assist in understanding why some of those infected with the virus experience long-term or recurring symptoms or sometimes develop brand new symptoms months later.  

Twins are studied using the following methods: 

• Cross sectional: Resolve genetic and environmental influences on outcome 
• Longitudinal: Genetic and environmental influence on developmental change 
• Discordant Monozygotic Twins: specific environmental influences 
• Epigenetic or Gene Expression: Characterizing mechanisms of environmental influence 
• Children of Twins: Social and genetic transmission of risk from parents to children 
• Spouses of Twins: Analyzing the role of mate selection in populations