UK Biobank launched in south Manchester
April 2006Around 3,000 south Manchester residents became trailblazers in a visionary medical project during March and April, when they took part in the start-up phase of UK Biobank.
The revolutionary research project, hosted by the University, will go nationwide later this year - eventually recruiting half-a-million volunteers aged 40 to 69. It aims to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other serious conditions by gathering a vast bank of medical data and material, which will allow future researchers to study how genes, lifestyle and environmental factors affect our risk of disease.
By involving thousands of people who will eventually go on to contract each disease, the project will allow researchers to identify why some develop specific diseases and others don’t. Nothing like it has been attempted before on such a vast scale, and the study should contribute significantly to prevention and treatment approaches in the future.
Medical researchers from more than 20 UK universities helped design the study, which is a massive technological undertaking. Specially designed automated systems will separate blood samples and store, retrieve and track around 10 million biological samples, which must be kept at between -80˚C and -200˚C for several decades.
Initial assessment
The first volunteers spent about an hour at an assessment centre in Altrincham, answering questions, having standard measurements taken and giving small blood and urine samples. The objective of this initial phase was to ensure planned procedures went smoothly before the study gets underway nationwide, when eight to 10 assessment centres will be running around the UK and the system will need to handle samples from around 1,000 people every day.Professor Alan Silman, The University of Manchester’s representative on the committee advising UK Biobank’s Board of Directors said: “The University winning the competitive bid to host UK Biobank was a real coup for Greater Manchester, as well as a reflection of the excellent facilities we have for population-based studies. It is the most important medical research study ever undertaken and will bring international recognition to the region, and this initial phase will allow the people of South Manchester to inform the design of a project which will span at least the next 20 years.”
