Glasgow contributes to world's biggest medical study
Published: 30 January 2009
Recruitment for UK Biobank, the world's biggest medical study, has hit the quarter of a million mark.
Recruitment for UK Biobank, the world's biggest medical study, has hit the quarter of a million mark.
The study aims to target 500,000 people whose wellbeing and lifestyle habits will help to improve the health of future generations.
And the recruitment of the 250,000th volunteer has put it on target to complete recruitment in mid-2010 – ahead of schedule.
The University of Glasgow's Professor Jill Pell, who is leading UK Biobank in Scotland, said: "To hit this target ahead of schedule - and with more than 18,500 people in Glasgow signing up - is fantastic news. It shows that the public are willing to help us gain a greater understanding of our health and to help future generations."
“We have been delighted to see such a positive, and generous, response to this project,” said Professor Rory Collins, UK Biobank’s Principal Investigator and BHF Professor of Medicine, Oxford University. Around one in ten people invited to join UK Biobank takes part, though the figure has been nearer 20 per cent in Bristol. “It is satisfying to know that so many people will go out of their way to help people they will never know.
“Though the assessment procedure takes only an hour and a half, we know people from all walks of life have taken time off work, given up their Saturdays and travelled some distance to be involved. To all of them I say an enormous ‘thank you’, and to those being invited I say ‘please come’. Their help will help many millions of people in the future.”
The Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Sir John Savill said: “The Scottish Government is delighted to support this innovative project.
“UK Biobank specifically recruits people at an age when they might develop a range of disabling or life-threatening conditions in order to identify the genetic and lifestyle risk factors involved. Significant benefits to public health through new ways of preventing or treating disease should be achieved.
“I am pleased to see that so many people from Scotland have been willing to support this project and look forward to the recruitment team returning to Scotland later this year.”
Current figures, recruitment on-going:
Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 29,340
Leeds: 27,034
Reading: 19,687
Bristol: 15,390
Nottingham: 13,308
City of London: 4,397
Recruitment completed:
South Manchester: 13,963
Bury: 28,429
Oxford: 14,075
Cardiff: 17,900
Glasgow: 18,678
Edinburgh: 17,213
Stoke: 19,456
UK Biobank is set to recruit in Dundee later in the year.
Participants attend local UK Biobank assessment centres where they provide information about their health and lifestyle, undergo a number of body measurements such as height, weight, BMI, blood pressure and lung function and donate samples of blood and urine for future analysis (including studies on genes).
The project will follow participants’ health for the next 30 years and more to provide key insights into why some people develop certain diseases (such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression and arthritis) and others do not.
Researchers from around the world will be able to use the UK Biobank resource if their work meets the strict ethics and scientific criteria required. Their findings will have to be put back into the public domain so that all research will benefit.
Care has been taken to protect every participant’s confidentiality. Information provided to researchers will not identify those who have taken part. This means that participants will never know just how important their own role was in bringing about future health benefits, but they will have played a considerable part.
“People have been keen to get involved because they understand the need for research and how, in time, this will result in better prevention and treatment strategies for a wide range illnesses,” said Professor Collins.
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the main funders of the project, said that the success of UK Biobank in recruiting 250,000 individuals shows how willing and keen people are to participate in medical research. “The greatest improvements in human health have come from implementing better public health measures combined with modern medicines. UK Biobank is a crucial project for advancing public health in the 21st Century,” he said.
UK Biobank is hosted by the University of Manchester. Professor Bill Ollier, The University of Manchester’s representative on the UK Biobank Board of Directors, said: “UK Biobank is making rapid progress. This is great news for Manchester and the Northwest as it will act as a spur to the health of the region’s population and can act as a powerhouse for our whole health economy.”
Blood and urine samples are stored in sub-zero temperatures in state-of-the-art facilities near Manchester. The UK Biobank sample archive was a finalist in the 2008 MacRobert Award for innovative engineering, run by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
UK Biobank is hosted by the University of Manchester and funded by the Department of Health, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
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First published: 30 January 2009
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