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The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS)

The Twin Early Development Study (TEDS) is one of the leading large-scale twin studies in the world. Starting in 1994, it has followed twins born in England and Wales throughout their childhood and adolescence and has now continued into early adulthood. Over 16,000 pairs of twins originally signed up for the study and more than 10,000 families remain involved to the present day. TEDS' main goal is to gain better insights into the roles of genes and environment in shaping who we are. The study is headed by Professor Robert Plomin, who is ranked among the 100 most influential psychologists. An overview of the project can be found here.  

The twins and their families help our research by completing questionnaires and taking part in interviews about different environmental and individual factors that might have been influencing them throughout their lives. We have also collected DNA samples from 12,500 twins and are using them together with the rest of the data to better understand how genes affect abilities and behaviours. A parallel study has also been launched, The Children of TEDS, or CoTEDS, which collects data from the children of our now grown-up original cohort of twins to establish how different behaviours and traits are passed down through generations. We hope that our scientific contributions will help families, teachers, policy makers and individuals themselves better understand the challenges we face when we grow up and how to deal with them in a more effective way. 

Members

Andrea Allegrini

Research student

Rosa Cheesman

Rosa Cheesman

Research student

Thalia Eley

Thalia Eley

Professor of Developmental Behavioural Genetics

Laurie Hannigan

Laurie Hannigan

Alumnus

Radhika Kandaswamy

Radhika Kandaswamy

Research Associate

Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan

Data Manager

Damien Morris

Damien Morris

Research student

Rachel Ogden

Coordinator

Amy Packer

Amy Packer

Research Assistant

Robert Plomin

Robert Plomin

Professor of Behavioural Genetics

Kaili Rimfeld

Kaili Rimfeld

Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow

Louise Webster

Louise Webster

Research Administrator

Harmonizing behavioral outcomes across studies, raters, and countries: application to the genetic analysis of aggression in the ACTION Consortium 01 January 2020

Cognitive ability and education: How behavioural genetic research has advanced our knowledge and understanding of their association 01 April 2020

Predicting educational achievement from genomic measures and socioeconomic status 01 January 2019

Comparison of adopted and non-adopted individuals reveals gene-environment interplay for education in the UK Biobank 01 January 2019

CATSLife: A Study of Lifespan Behavioral Development and Cognitive Functioning 01 January 2019

Twins Early Development Study: A Genetically Sensitive Investigation into Behavioral and Cognitive Development from Infancy to Emerging Adulthood 23 September 2019

Genetic factors underlie the association between anxiety, attitudes and performance in mathematics 18 August 2019

Comparing the genetic architecture of childhood behavioral problems across socioeconomic strata in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom 01 June 2019

Erratum to: Cross-ancestry genome-wide association analysis of corneal thickness strengthens link between complex and Mendelian eye diseases (Nature Communications, (2018), 9, 1, (1864), 10.1038/s41467-018-03646-6) 08 January 2019

Publisher Correction: Common schizophrenia alleles are enriched in mutation-intolerant genes and in regions under strong background selection 03 June 2019

View all research outputs

Contact us

0800 317029

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