UK Biobank enters new phase

Published: 8 May 2003

Scottish Consortium to become one of six Collaborating Centres

The UK Biobank is a major UK-based resource that will be used by the world's top scientists to explore the roles of nature and nurture in health and disease. The project will involve up to 500 000 volunteers from across the UK, aged 45-69, who will complete lifestyle questionnaires and provide a blood sample for DNA and other analysis. This information, together with their medical histories, will be combined to create an anonymised national database.

This will serve as a resource for scientists to investigate and determine the factors that cause the common disorders of later life such as heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's disease and type 2 diabetes. National and international experts in the field have rigorously and independently reviewed the science of the project, which has the support of a number of leading research charities. It is being funded jointly by The Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health who have provided an initial £45 million for the project.

The funders of the UK Biobank have recently confirmed that a Scottish Consortium, headed by the University of Glasgow and including Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen, has been successful in its bid to become one of the six Collaborating Centres for the project.

Participants will be recruited via their general practitioners. All four Scottish Academic Departments of Primary Care and the Scottish School of Primary Care are members of the Scottish Consortium.

A total of 23 universities will be involved directly in the project as members of the six UK consortia. It has also been confirmed by the funders that the University of Manchester has won the opportunity to host the Co-ordinating Centre for the project.

The new Manchester headquarters of the study of genes, environment and health, will have overall responsibility for delivering the project including data management and quality assurance, computing and financial management. It will also be responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the six scientific Collaborating Centres who will contribute to the design of the project and be responsible for participant recruitment and initial data and sample collection.

Anna Dominczak, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Glasgow, is one of the gene bank's organisers within the Scottish Consortium. She explained, ' The UK Biobank project will be bigger than anything else in the world. We hope that not only will it help identify the genes that predispose people to common conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer but it will also allow us to look at how genes interact with environmental factors in the population.'

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)


For general information on the project and specific information on the Scottish Consortium and the University of Glasgow?s involvement, please contact the Press Office on 0141 330 3535.

For background on the funders, please contact ;

Johnny Steyn in the MRC Press Office on 020 7637 6011

E-mail: johannes.steyn@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

Shaun Griffin in the Wellcome Trust Press Office on 020 7611 8612; Mobile: 07710 307059

E-mail: s.griffin@wellcome.ac.uk

Alison Pitts-Bland in the Department of Health Media Centre on 020 7210 5230

E-mail: alison.pitts-bland@doh.gov.uk

First published: 8 May 2003

<< May