The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP): An Emerging Platform for Precision Health

Posted January 30, 2017

Untangling the interplay between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors – genetics, epigenetics, diet, lifestyle, and environment – is central to our understanding of the onset and progression of many cancers and other chronic diseases.  Making sense of this complex network of interactions requires an assessment of these factors at the population-level.  The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP) is Canada’s largest population health research platform that could be used to better understand how these variables contribute to disease pathways.  Over 300,000 participants have provided data on their lifestyle, family history of disease, environmental exposures – among other variables – and a subset have provided venous blood samples and physical measures such as grip strength, height, and hip and waist ratio.  Data and biosamples from CPTP are now available to qualifying investigators through an access request process to support a wide range of research on the causes of cancer and other chronic diseases.

Agenda & Presentations

Time Item
8:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. Introductory Remarks

Heather Bryant, MD, PhD, CCFP, FRCPC, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

9:15 a.m. The Institute of Cancer Research and the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP): Partners in Discovery

Rachel Syme, PhD; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

10:00 a.m. Networking Break
10:15 a.m. The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project

Trevor JB Dummer PhD; BC Generations Project

10:45 a.m. Examples of Scalable Research
Trevor JB Dummer, PhD; BC Generations Project Joseph Tcherkezian, PhD; CARTaGENE
Michelle Sharma; Alberta’s Tomorrow Project Louise Parker, PhD; Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (PATH)
Kelly McDonald, MA; Ontario Health Study  
11:45 a.m. CPTP’s Access Procedures

Ma’n H Zawati, LLB, LLM, McGIll University

12:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. Cross-Cohort Harmonization Project for Tomorrow (CHPT)

Ghislain Rocheleau, PhD; Maelstrom Research

1:30 p.m. CPTP as a Platform to Explore Prostate Cancer

Paul Boutros, PhD; Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR)

2:00 p.m. CANUE: Harmonized Environmental Exposures Related to Urban Form

Jeffrey R Brook, PhD; Environment and Climate Change Canada

2:30 p.m. Networking Break
2:45 p.m. Assessing Dietary Exposures: Possibilities and Pitfalls

Sharon Kirkpatrick, PhD; University of Waterloo

3:15 p.m. CPTP and Data Linkage

Craig Earle, MD, MSc; Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences

3:45 p.m. Challenges and Future Directions

Philip Awadalla, PhD, Ontario Health Study

4:15 p.m. Closing remarks
4:30 p.m. Meeting Adjourned