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Twinsburg, Ohio, Sees Jobs in Twins

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 18:01 CDT

Aug. 6--TWINSBURG - This weekend is Robert Morell's fourth consecutive year at Twins Days.

But he won't be there with an identically dressed identical brother. He'll be there, as so many others have been through the years, as a researcher, studying twins in hopes of uncovering a new understanding of genetic factors in disease, aging and even emotions.

That's why the city is floating the idea of the Twinsburg Center for Genetic Evaluation and Research, which would be the one place in the world to visit for research findings and ongoing studies of twins.

Dr. Darrick E. Antell, a New York plastic surgeon using Twins Days to study the effects of smoking, sun damage and aging, said Twinsburg has what no other place in the world has: 2,000 to 3,000 twins who visit every year.

"Twinsburg is a magnet for twins to come back to," he said, "and that's what you need."

SGI Global Business Advisors in Cleveland suggested the idea of a genetic research center to Twinsburg this summer as a way to pull in international business. Mayor Katherine Procop sees it as a potential economic development plan to bring year-round research jobs to the city.

First, though, the city is waiting to see surveys from the researchers. Does such a center have scientific merit? Would researchers find it useful? Would researchers simply be looking for data and studies? Or would they want laboratories in which to conduct the studies?

"We don't really have a good idea of what it's going to be yet," economic development director Larry Finch told researchers Friday evening. "It's a concept for the city. We'd like you to help us clarify that concept."

This year -- the festival's 30th -- nine research groups will be asking twins to take part in studies. The groups come from Harvard University, MIT, University Hospitals of Cleveland and Northwestern University, among others.

Morell, a National Institutes of Health researcher, has been testing twins to see whether they share strengths or weaknesses in processing what they hear. The research is trying to determine whether hearing problems are a genetic factor in language and learning disorders.

"What we ask is, do the twins score alike? And do identical twins score more alike than fraternal twins?" he said. "The underlying question is: Is it just environmental, or is it genetic?"

If twins show the same tendencies, that seems to indicate a genetic link rather than a learned response. After three years of testing, Morell said, the research has uncovered "significant" findings, but he can't reveal details until the study is published in a medical journal.

Antell said he was surprised by what he found at Twins Days three years ago, sharing pictures of twins who were looking less alike than they used to because of choices each made about smoking or sun exposure.

"I came here and thought all the twins looked alike," he said. "It wasn't until I got back to New York and looked at the pictures that I said, 'Whoa, what happened here?' " After plastic surgery on 10 sets of twins, they looked alike again, he said, because they looked younger.

Glenn and Robert Litscher, 74-year-old twins who flew in from Arizona for Twins Days, can understand why researchers would find twins valuable. The two suffered the same heart problems -- same symptoms, same heart-valve problem, same surgery -- one year apart.

Coincidence? Probably not, Glenn Litscher said.

"We live similar lives. We eat about the same. We've always been pretty active," he said. "It's hereditary, I imagine."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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