500,000 people invited to participate in UK Biobank project
The UK's Biobank, a major project to investigate the causes of different diseases, has got underway with invitations to participate being sent out to 500,000 people. Scientists have known for many years that our risks of developing different diseases are due to the combined impact of different factors: lifestyle and environment; genes; and luck. But the way in which these different factors can lead to different diseases in different circumstances is still unclear. Hopefully this will then lead to new ways of preventing disease and disability. The Biobank project will examine, interview and take samples from 500,000 UK citizens between the ages of 40 and 69. The UK National Health Service treats the single largest group of people anywhere in the world, and keeps detailed records on all of them from birth to death. Prolonged follow-up of participants through routine medical and other health-related records will therefore be straightforward, and will allow the identification of comparatively large numbers of individuals who develop each of a wide range of disabling and life-threatening conditions. Participants' health will be tracked over the next 30 years. The Biobank is linked to a number of other population-based initiatives around the world (and more still are planned), and is a member of the Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G) This international consortium supports the development and management of a multidisciplinary infrastructure for comparing and merging results from population genomic studies.
Countries
United Kingdom