Manchester HQ for UK Biobank

7 May 2003

The University of Manchester has won the opportunity to host the Coordinating Centre for the UK Biobank project. The project - funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and Department of Health - will generate a major UK-based resource that will be used to explore the roles of nature and nurture in health and disease.

The project will involve up to 500 000 volunteers aged 45 to 69, who will complete lifestyle questionnaires, and provide blood samples for analysis and medical histories. These will be fed into an anonymized national database - the UK Biobank.

The new Manchester headquarters will have overall responsibility for delivering the project, including data management, computing and financial management. It will also be responsible for coordinating the activities of six scientific Collaborating Centres - each consisting of a network of academic and research institutions - who will contribute to the design of the project and be responsible for participant recruitment and initial data and sample collection. A total of 23 UK universities will be involved.

A Science Committee has also been established to advise UK Biobank on strategic direction and its overall approach to developing the scientific content of the project. The committee will be chaired by Professor John Bell, the Regius Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Medical Sciences, University of Oxford, and a world-leading figure in the genetics of complex diseases.

Next, a series of consultations with representatives from the Coordinating Centre and Collaborating Centres, healthcare professionals, parliamentary representatives and members of the public will feed into the development of the ethics and governance framework for the UK Biobank project.

See also

• UK Biobank enters new phase (Press release: 7 May 2003)

External links

• UK Biobank (Project details)
• University of Manchester wins UK Biobank host status (University of Manchester News release: 7 May 2003)