St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy & GenV Research

What is GenV?

GenV is a research project for expecting parents and newborn babies, happening from 2020 to 2022 in Victoria. If you join, you will contribute to healthier children, parents, and families in the future.

From 2020 to 2022, parents of newborns across the whole of Victoria are invited to be a part of GenV by safely and securely sharing information about themselves and the health and development of their newborn.

For the first time ever, this will give a complete picture of the health and wellbeing of a whole generation, allowing researchers to unlock discoveries that improve the lives of all families.

GenV is one of the world’s largest-ever birth and parent cohort studies. It will follow babies and their parents to help solve problems like

asthma,
food allergies,
obesity,
autism
and mental illness.

By 2035, GenV’s vision is to have helped create a happier and healthier future for many children and parents.

Download more information

By taking part in GenV, you will help researchers find better ways to treat, predict and prevent health problems. You and your baby can help create a better future for all families – now and tomorrow.

GenV will involve information that gives a more complete picture of community health and wellbeing. This includes how children develop, how people age, and how health changes across generations.

Taking part is simple. A GenV team member visits or contacts you soon after your baby is born, usually in the hospital. We request your consent for your baby to take part, and one or more parents or guardians.

Information about you and your baby is collected on the spot. If you agree, we collect a saliva swab from inside the cheek of you and your baby’s cheeks, to look more closely at how genetics and biology affect health and wellbeing.

As your child grows, GenV stays in touch, and collects brief information about you and your child. Sometimes, services may help GenV with assessments like an extra vision test. We also add information and samples that services already collect. So GenV takes very little of your time.

GenV is led from the Melbourne Children’s Campus (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital and University of Melbourne, supported by The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation). It is funded by the Victorian Government and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

It is supported by:

St Vincent’s Private Hospital Fitzroy, along with other maternity and local children’s hospitals,
Victorian universities and research institutes

Leading experts in Victoria, Australia and around the world
Local families and communities, who have helped to design GenV

Sarah gives birth to her daughter, Kate, at a local hospital. A couple of days later she and her partner are approached by a GenV team member and agree to take part. At age four, Kate becomes ill. She is often tired, and not eating or sleeping properly. Her parents take Kate to many different specialists. After months of searching for an answer, Kate was diagnosed with a complex food allergy that needs a special diet.

Researchers using GenV data had been looking at links between food allergies and a broad range of health data. With the complete picture of child health provided by GenV, they find a number of children have a pattern of symptoms like Kate’s.

The researchers shared this knowledge with doctors and other scientists. GenV’s data and samples helped in the discovery of a more precise test for this allergy. With the new test, other families were saved the experience of having a sick child with no diagnosis quickly available.

To find out more please visit genv.org.au

St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy & GenV Research

St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy & GenV Research

This project has a simple but important goal, a better approach to child and adult health and wellbeing in Victoria.

What problems will GenV research be helping to solve?

Why join GenV?

What does GenV involve?

Who is conducting GenV?

A once in a generation chance to accelerate solutions for health and wellbeing.

How GenV could make a difference. An Example.

St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy & GenV Research

This project has a simple but important goal, a better approach to child and adult health and wellbeing in Victoria.

What problems will GenV research be helping to solve?

Why join GenV?

What does GenV involve?

Who is conducting GenV?

A once in a generation chance to accelerate solutions for health and wellbeing.

How GenV could make a difference. An Example.

Related content

Maternity (Obstetrics)

Paediatrics

St Vincent’s Private Hospital Fitzroy, VIC