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UK biobank opens to researchers
The
UK Biobank whose aim is to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a
wide range of conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes is opening
its doors to researchers. The biobank will be open to researchers from the UK and abroad
who will be able to apply the anonymised data in their investigative work. Participants
were recruited three years ago restrictively to people aged 40 to 69.
It
has collated about 20TB (terabytes) of securely stored data, the equivalent of
30,000 CDs-worth, on 500,000 people. Each answered questions on their health,
lifestyle, diet, memory, work and family history.
They
also had a range of measurements taken, including blood pressure, pulse rate,
height, weight, body fat and lung function, and provided blood, saliva and
urine samples.
The
centers’ hope is to develop new treatments and prevention strategies for the
management common health conditions. This will be through investigation on why some
people develop particular diseases in middle age while others do not.
Prof
Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser at the
Department of Health, said: "UK Biobank is a globally unique resource
which places the UK at the forefront of the quest to understand why some people
develop life-threatening diseases or debilitating conditions.