UK Biobank: A Unique Global Resource for Health-Related Research and Discovery Science

Department of Epidemiology Seminar Series

Open to the public

Speaker:

Naomi Allen, DPhil, MSc
Professor in Epidemiology
The Nuffield Department of Population Health
University of Oxford

Abstract: UK Biobank, a large-scale cohort study and biomedical database, is one of the world’s most important and widely-used health research resources, containing a wealth of data on genomics, lifestyle factors and health outcomes on half a million participants. UK Biobank has collected, and continues to collect,  detailed lifestyle, environmental, biomarker and genomic data (including whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing data) for all 500,000 participants, with large subsets undertaking multi-modal imaging scans and remote monitoring (e.g. of physical activity and cardiac health).  Its large size, high quality exposure measures, coupled with a long duration of follow-up of health outcomes through linkage to electronic medical records, makes UK Biobank an unparalleled resource. However, it’s the easy accessibility of the data that has made UK Biobank so successful, with over 30,000 researchers (10,000 in the US) – from academic and commercial institutes worldwide – who are using UK Biobank to make unique discoveries about the relevance of genetics and lifestyle factors on disease risk.