UK Biobank scanned brains, hearts, abdomens, blood vessels, bones, and joints in largest imaging project to date.
UK Biobank worked with 100,000 volunteers for 15 years to compile the largest and most detailed set of images of the human body— the groundbreaking achievement will advance disease diagnostics, prevention, and treatment.
The UK Biobank charity is the world’s most comprehensive source of biomedical data for health research for public interest. Over the past 15 years, it has collected biological, health, and lifestyle information from 500,000 UK volunteers to advance modern medicine and drive the discovery of new preventions, treatments, and cures.
As their dataset continuously grows, they’ve already compiled the world’s largest set of whole-genome sequencing data. Now they’ve reached another milestone for science. Working with 100,000 volunteers, they scanned their brains, hearts, abdomens, blood vessels, bones, and joints to complete the world’s largest whole body imaging project.
“The unprecedented scale of this imaging project – more than 10 times bigger than anything that existed before – makes it possible for scientists to see patterns of disease that just couldn’t otherwise be seen,” said Professor Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank, in a press release.
Already, over 1,300 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published based on UK Biobank’s imaging data, some of which reflect the impact the dataset is having on diagnostics, such as the ability to analyze heart scans in less than a second.
And now, with the latest dataset, researchers can look inside the human body and see “in ways that were previously impossible” how all aspects of our lives influence our health.
A detailed look inside the human body
About 15 years ago, about 100,000 volunteers signed up to participate in the world’s most significant imaging project. A volunteer named Alison, a member of the UK Biobank’s Participant Advisory Group, said she did it to “create a healthier future for all of us to enjoy.” They provided detailed data, including information about their lifestyle and a blood sample.
A few years later, UK Biobank began conducting 100,000 five-hour imaging appointments with a £60 million investment backing the initiative. Researchers collected 12,000 Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the brain, heart, and abdomen. They also conducted ultrasounds of the carotid arteries and whole-body scans to measure bone density and body fat.
Each volunteer also provided the same data when they first signed up, the press release continued.
The imaging data aims to help scientists understand disease to a never-before-seen depth. “Now researchers can measure the size, shape, and composition of nearly every organ and tissue in the body in seconds, rather than hours per person,” said Professor Louise Thomas, Professor of Metabolic Imaging at the University of Westminster.
A bright future for disease research
Already, UK Biobank’s imaging data are driving discovery science. Researchers are developing an AI model of a healthy heart to catch diseases early. They are beginning to understand that our organs might be biologically older than we are. They’ve uncovered how connected the heart and brain are, and more. Data on this scale is being fed into machine learning platforms, so they can predict disease years before symptoms start to appear.
“The beauty of UK Biobank is the breadth of the data collected from the generous volunteers, and the imaging scans add another layer of exquisite detail. One recent study used the brain imaging data from 20,000 participants, along with activity monitoring and genetic data, to develop an AI tool to predict who may go on to develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. I can’t wait to see what imaging data on 100,000 individuals will reveal!” Professor Paul Matthews concluded in a press release, Chair of the UK Biobank Imaging Working Group.
Read more about the project here.
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