Research Partners & Collaborators

Advancing Medical Research through Partnerships

No one can do everything alone. Therefore, Avera believes in the power of partnership and collaboration. By developing relationships with experts through the region, nation and world, we have advanced science and obtained the knowledge to improve the care we provide to our patients and communities.

Vrije University

Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center has developed a formal working agreement for further collaboration with Vrije University (VU) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Through the agreement, Avera Genetics is the genetics lab that performs not only all of the genotyping for the Netherlands Twin Register, but also the genotyping for future genetics research in partnership with VU, in addition to genotyping for the Avera Twin Register.

The Netherlands Twin Register provides insight into how genetics and the environment influence individual differences by examining the contribution of hereditary predisposition to such characteristics as personality, development, disease and risk factors for disease.

Since it began in 1987, over 25,000 twins and multiples between ages 15 and 70 and over 62,000 twins between birth and age 15 have registered. Over 175,000 participants total are registered with the NTR including multiples and their family members such as parents, siblings and spouses.