UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource, containing in-depth genetic and health information from half a million UK participants. The database, which is regularly augmented with additional data, is globally accessible to approved researchers and scientists undertaking vital research into the most common and life-threatening diseases. UK Biobank’s research resource is a major contributor to the advancement of modern medicine and treatment and has enabled several scientific discoveries that improve human health.

Since 2006, UK Biobank has collected an unprecedented amount of biological and medical data on half a million people, aged between 40 and 69 years old and living in the UK, as part of a large-scale prospective study. With their consent they regularly provide blood, urine and saliva samples, as well as detailed information about their lifestyle which is then linked to their health-related records to provide a deeper understanding of how individuals experience diseases. Genotyping, whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing is available for the whole cohort. Blood and urine biomarkers, telomere data, metabolomic and proteomic data and infectious disease markers have been assayed from the samples provided.

Since 2014 we have been undertaking the largest imaging study to date. We aim to undertake brain, cardiac and neck to knee MRI, whole body DXA and carotid ultrasound of 100,000 participants. We additionally have retinal images for 100,000 participants from baseline assessment, and accelerometer data for 100,000 participants collected 2013-2014.

Questionnaires that aim to capture data that is not readily captured by health data linkages are regularly sent to our participants.

The data – the largest and richest dataset of its kind – is de-identified and made widely accessible by UK Biobank to registered researchers around the world who use it to make new scientific discoveries about common and life-threatening diseases – such as cancer, heart disease and stroke – in order to improve public health.