Project description:<p>The Long Life Family Study (LLFS) is an international collaborative study of the genetics and familial components of exceptional survival, longevity, and healthy aging. Families were recruited through elderly probands (generally in their 90s) who self-reported on the survival history of their parents and siblings, and on the basis of this information, families which showed clustering of exceptional survival were recruited. [Specifically, a Family Longevity Selection Score (FLOSS) ≥7 was required. The FLOSS measures the average excess Observed lifespan over that Expected based upon lifetables, while adding a bonus term for still-living individuals. Thus FLOSS is a useful tool for scoring and selecting families for inclusion in a research study of exceptional survival (Sebastiani et al., 2009, PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19910380" target="_blank">19910380</a>)]. Probands resided in the catchment areas of four Field Centers (Boston University, Columbia University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Southern Denmark). Recruited family members were phenotyped through extensive in-home visits by teams of technicians who traveled all over the USA and Denmark. Blood assays were centrally processed at a Laboratory Core (University of Minnesota) and protocols were standardized, monitored and coordinated through a Data Management Coordinating Center (Washington University). We examined and extensively phenotyped in all major domains of healthy aging, 4,953 individuals in 539 families through comprehensive in-home visits. Of these, 4,815 gave dbGaP sharing permission and had sufficient quantity/quality of DNA for GWAS genotyping. This large collection of families, selected on the basis of clustering for exceptional survival, is a unique resource for the study of human longevity and healthy aging. We estimate that less than 1% of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) families (a roughly random population family sample) would meet the minimal entrance criteria for exceptional survival required in the LLFS (Sebastiani et al., 2009, PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19910380" target="_blank">19910380</a>). Thus, the least exceptional LLFS families show more clustering for exceptional longevity than 99% of the FHS families. Although the LLFS pedigrees were selected on the basis of longevity per se in the upper generation (and the generation above that), the children's generation have significantly lower rates of many major diseases and have better healthy aging profiles for many disease phenotypes (Newman et al., 2011, PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258136" target="_blank">21258136</a>).</p>
