adults from Augsburg and the surrounding counties. The biological specimen bank was established in order to enable researchers to perform epidemiological research into molecular and genetic factors. The Heinz Nixdorf Recall (Risk Factors, Evaluation of Coronary Calcification, and Lifestyle) study (http://www.recall-studie.uni-essen.de) was started in 2000 as a prospective cohort study to determine predictors of coronary heart disease. It has the biosamples, phenotypic characteristics and environmental parameters of 4500 adults. PopGen and Kora are the two major German biobanking resources available to participants of the National Genome Research Project (NGFN) (http://www.ngfn.de/) for use as universal controls,37 and they have already been used as samples in other GWAS.37-38
