About Us
Purpose and Role
The Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic (MEGA) Epidemiology conducts research investigating the role of genetic and environmental factors on the causes and outcomes of diseases.
Major projects include family and twin studies of cancer, risk factors for cancer, respiratory diseases and epilepsy. The Centre houses the Australian Twin Registry (ATR), a voluntary national database of more than 30,000 twin pairs which is a valuable resource for medical research accessed by Australian and international investigators.
The Centre’s staff include the Director; molecular, environmental, genetic and infectious disease epidemiologists; statisticians; database managers and programmers; study coordinators; interviewers; phlebotomists; and administrators.
The Centre supports the Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory in the department of Pathology, which houses the largest medical biorepository in Australia and conducts molecular and genetic studies.
The Centre has strong collaborative links with The Cancer Council Victoria, BreastScreen Victoria, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Research Institute, Queensland Institute of Medical Research and other research institutions throughout Australia.
International collaborative research links include Cambridge University and Leeds University in the UK; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Mayo Clinic, University of Hawaii and Columbia University, New York in the USA; Cancer Care Ontario, Canada; and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.