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What’s New With the OHS?

Since 2010, the Ontario Health Study (OHS) has been working hard to build a platform for chronic disease research. Working together with the research community and Ontarians across the province we are now following the health of about 225,000 people and have collected more than 40,000 blood samples. We’re building a database of health information and a biobank so researchers can better understand the link between genetics, lifestyle and environment—and the role they play in our health.

In this section, you’ll find information about the various Study activities and upcoming initiatives.

Blood tubes in the laboratory centrifuge

PHD student using OHS data to look for early signs of cancer

Mar 3, 2023 // Study Updates

Nicholas Cheng is using data to compare over 400 OHS participants who’ve experienced a cancer diagnosis, with matched cancer-free participants, to look for biomarkers in the blood that could be used to detect breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers several years before a traditional diagnosis. Hear what motivates this PHD student, as he reflects on his

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Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative: Powering genetic discovery across human disease

Jan 16, 2023 // Study Updates

The OHS contributed genotyping data from 7,300 consented participants to a groundbreaking global initiative to research the underlying biology of human disease and disease traits. As the largest contributor to CanPath, the OHS is the only Canadian study to be included in the Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative (GBMI), which to date involves genetic data from 2.2

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Smoking history associated with decreased heart inflammation in Clinically Manifest Cardiac Sarcoidosis patients

Nov 24, 2022 // Study Updates

The causes of sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease diagnosed in an estimated 21,000 Canadians, remain unknown. A specific form affecting the heart, cardiac sarcoidosis (or CS), is considered especially serious, being responsible for roughly 85% of deaths from the disease despite accounting for only 5% of sarcoidosis cases. A group of researchers led by Dr. David

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