UK Biobank pilot project success leads to nationwide launch

A L62.0 million ($117.3 million) study of 500,000 people across the UK has been given the go-ahead by the UK Biobank's financial backers, after a positive report endorsed a pilot study in the Greater Manchester area. The UK government and the Wellcome Trust, a UK-based health care research charity, consider the "visionary" project to offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between genes, lifestyle and the environment, in terms of measuring individuals' risks of developing specific diseases.

UK Biobank was criticized for "over-ambition"

The pilot scheme, running from April to June this year, consisted of 3,800 people living in the Greater Manchester area who provided blood and urine samples, had standard measurements taken and completed a 90-minute questionnaire. The volunteers agreed to allow the UK Biobank to monitor their health via their medical records for subsequent years. The project was first proposed in 1999 and faced criticism in some quarters for being over-ambitious, poorly focussed and unlikely to provide sufficiently valuable data to justify the investment.