Banking on a healthier future

More than fifty years ago, eminent scientist the late Sir Richard Doll embarked on a research project that tracked the lives – and deaths – of 40,000 doctors. The information he gathered enabled him to him to prove the link between smoking and lung cancer, a discovery that has since saved the lives of millions around the world.

There is no doubt that Sir Richard Doll’s work was a seminal piece of medical research, but imagine the knowledge that could have been gained by scientists if the study had been ten times larger, and included samples of blood, urine and other body measurements that were stored for future examination.

Since 2007, the University of Glasgow has been leading Scottish participation in a visionary medical project designed to track around half a million people across the UK in order to improve the health of future generations.

UK Biobank is a multi-million pound programme that is developing a major resource for the scientists of the future by researching the health of people aged 40-69 for the next 30 years or more. As the project evolves it will provide information on why some people get particular illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, dementia and depression – and others do not, paving the way for better prevention and treatment.

‘Recruiting half a million people to a research project is an enormous and ambitious undertaking,’ says Professor Anna Dominiczak, British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University. ‘But the people who live in and around Glasgow and Edinburgh have shown that it is possible. They are helping to build a rich resource that will make a significant contribution to advances in health care in many years to come.’

'If the UK Biobank meets its goal of 500,000 participants by 2010, then around 1% of the adult British population will have played their part.' Professor Anna Dominiczak

In fact, Scotland reached the landmark of 25,000 participants in March this year. Mrs Isobel Angus, a retired nurse from Kilsyth, was the 25,000th Scot to join UK Biobank at the Glasgow assessment centre, before it concluded its part of the study in April.

‘I was surprised at how simple and easy it was to join,’ Mrs Angus says. ‘I think it is important to do what we can to help medical research so that our children and grandchildren will live healthier lives.’

The samples gathered from Scotland will eventually be stored for decades in specially designed laboratories near Manchester, at temperatures down to around -200ºC.

To find out more visit the UK Biobank website