How might stored samples contribute to future research?
Doctors already know about causes of heart attacks and strokes such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and are able to treat these with drugs. Scientists also think that other factors might play a part in circulatory problems, but there is limited understanding of how these work. In particular, we have limited knowledge about the effect of genes on risk of heart disease, strokes, diabetes or other important diseases. If we have participant permission to keep blood samples in a very cold freezer, then in the future we might be able to test new scientific discoveries by defrosting and analysing these samples.