Volunteer recruitment kicks off in Manchester for UK Biobank
23 March 2007
A multi-million pound medical project partly funded by the Medical Research Council is beginning its recruitment of half a million people across Britain in Manchester this week. UK Biobank aims to find out much more about curing many life threatening and debilitating diseases. It will recruit people aged 40-69 and track their health over the course of the next 30 years or more.
In the first phase of a four-year recruitment process, about 10,000 letters asking people to take part in UK Biobank are being sent to Manchester residents over the course of the next few days. Tens of thousands more invitations will be sent throughout the course of the year. A successful pilot study to check the feasibility of this huge undertaking took place in Altrincham (south Manchester) last year.
Hosted by the University of Manchester, UK Biobank is one of the biggest and most detailed public health research initiatives ever. Researchers, including some of the most eminent scientists from around the world, believe it will provide a valuable resource for research into a wide range of diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, mental illness, Parkinson’s disease, joint and dental disease and many other life-threatening and debilitating conditions. It will help doctors and other medical researchers to develop a better understanding of the causes of many common diseases and improve their prevention and treatment.
People in Manchester who agree to take part in UK Biobank will attend a 90 minute assessment at a special centre in Hulme, south Manchester. They will be asked to allow UK Biobank to follow them through routine health records over many years. The assessment centre will open in April.
Mrs Catherine Humphreys, Didsbury
"My father, who had diabetes and heart disease, died last year, so I wanted to do it because I felt it would be a good way to assist research, especially when I read that it would be looking at heart disease and diabetes. I have four children, and my daughter, who is having her second baby, has developed gestational diabetes. Their health is important to me. So I have reasons in the past, the present and the future for taking part in Biobank."
Participants will be asked about their current health and lifestyle and will have a number of measurements taken, such as blood pressure, weight, lung function and bone density. They will also be asked to give small samples of blood and urine. Though not a health check, participants will leave with a list of personal health-related measurements and some indication of how they compare to standard values.
Dr Tim Peakman, UK Biobank Executive Director, based at the charity’s headquarters in Stockport, said: “We can’t do this without people’s help. Though UK Biobank may not directly benefit those who take part it will help our children and our children’s children to live longer, healthier lives. A willingness to help others in this altruistic way will, I hope, be a powerful motivation for many people to take part.
“The UK Biobank resource will help untangle the complex interplay of nature (that is, genes) and nurture (such as lifestyle) in the development of many different diseases. Its goal is not to focus on genes alone, which may be better done through other sorts of study.”
Around 15 million blood and urine samples will eventually be stored for decades in specially designed laboratories near Manchester, at temperatures down to about -200°C.
UK Biobank is not just for the fit and healthy. “It is important that we involve the whole population. So if people who are not in good health receive an invitation to take part we would very much welcome them as participants in this remarkable health project,” said Dr Peakman.
Rory Collins, British Heart Foundation Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford University, and UK Biobank’s Principal Investigator, said: “UK Biobank is a project of which the whole of Britain can truly be proud. We are talking to lots of British scientists about the ways this resource can help their research and, internationally, advising others who want to set up similar projects in their own countries.
“Health research has taken enormous strides in the past decade and we know a lot about how our bodies work, but we need to find out more. In setting up UK Biobank for researchers in the future - those who may only be in primary or junior school now or not even born – we are establishing the blood-based resource to do just that, and making a significant contribution to improving the health of future generations.”
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