UK Biobank Imaging Enhancement Main phase
Lead Research Organisation:
Wellcome Trust
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
The challenges of understanding the determinants of common life-threatening and disabling diseases are substantial. Such conditions are typically caused by many different exposures that each have moderate effects and interact with each other in complex ways. Prospective cohorts, such as UK Biobank, have advantages for the comprehensive and reliable quantification of the combined effects of different types of risk factor on health outcomes. In particular, exposures can be assessed before they are affected by disease or its management, and diseases can be assessed that are not readily investigated by retrospective studies (e.g. dementia). Moreover, all of the beneficial and adverse effects of a specific factor on the life-time risks of different diseases can be considered. Prospective studies do, however, need to involve large numbers of participants because only a relatively small proportion will develop any particular condition. UK Biobank has involved the collection of extensive baseline questionnaire data, physical measurements and biological samples from 500,000 men and women aged 40-69 at baseline, and their health is now being followed long-term. This proposal is for enhanced phenotyping of 100,000 of the participants with a set of imaging modalities that have been carefully chosen to provide considerable additional information that is likely to be relevant to many different health outcomes.
Technical Summary
UK Biobank has involved the collection of extensive baseline questionnaire data, physical measurements and biological samples from 500,000 men and women aged 40-69 at baseline in 2006-10, and their health is now being followed by linkage to health records and by web-based questionnaires. This proposal involves the enhancement of the phenotyping of 100,000 participants in UK Biobank with information from multiple imaging modalities involving the brain, heart, large blood vessels, body composition, and bone and joints. The large scale is intended to provide sufficient statistical power for reliable assessment of associations between these imaging phenotype measures and a wide range of incident diseases. As with the successful recruitment and baseline assessment phase, the application of highly efficient processes to optimise and manage these imaging assessments has been shown in the pilot phase to allow them to be conducted cost-effectively. The pilot phase has also demonstrated that non-imaging assessments could be conducted in parallel without interfering with the streamlined imaging process. The pilot phase has shown that high quality data can be obtained and that an increasing range of research-ready measures can be derived using automated analysis tools. These imaging data would be available to all bona fide researchers for health-related research that is in the public interest. During and after the main phase of imaging, these dedicated imaging centres could also be used for repeat imaging in subsets of participants to allow investigation of the relevance of changes in imaging measures to various outcomes (e.g. dementia).
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Rory Collins (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
He D
(2023)
A longitudinal genome-wide association study of bone mineral density mean and variability in the UK Biobank
in Osteoporosis International
Foster PJ
(2023)
Cohort profile: rationale and methods of UK Biobank repeat imaging study eye measures to study dementia.
in BMJ open
Parish S
(2022)
Effects of aspirin on dementia and cognitive function in diabetic patients: the ASCEND trial.
in European heart journal
Rutter CE
(2023)
Exploring regression dilution bias using repeat measurements of 2858 variables in =49 000 UK Biobank participants.
in International journal of epidemiology
Luettich A
(2023)
Functional connectivity between interoceptive brain regions is associated with distinct health-related domains: A population-based neuroimaging study.
in Human brain mapping
Leonardsen EH
(2023)
Genetic architecture of brain age and its causal relations with brain and mental disorders.
in Molecular psychiatry
Mentzer AJ
(2022)
Identification of host-pathogen-disease relationships using a scalable multiplex serology platform in UK Biobank.
in Nature communications
Gibson L
(2017)
Impact of detecting potentially serious incidental findings during multi-modal imaging
in Wellcome Open Research
Miller KL
(2016)
Multimodal population brain imaging in the UK Biobank prospective epidemiological study.
in Nature neuroscience
Beševic J
(2022)
New Horizons: the value of UK Biobank to research on endocrine and metabolic disorders.
in The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
Douaud G
(2022)
SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank.
in Nature
Topiwala A
(2023)
Telomere length and brain imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank.
in PloS one
Littlejohns TJ
(2020)
The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future directions.
in Nature communications
Petersen SE
(2016)
UK Biobank's cardiovascular magnetic resonance protocol.
in Journal of cardiovascular magnetic resonance : official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance
Conroy MC
(2023)
UK Biobank: a globally important resource for cancer research.
in British journal of cancer
Littlejohns TJ
(2019)
UK Biobank: opportunities for cardiovascular research.
in European heart journal
Caleyachetty R
(2021)
United Kingdom Biobank (UK Biobank): JACC Focus Seminar 6/8.
in Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Description | Impact of clinically silent atrial fibrillation on cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline in the UK Biobank Imaging Cohort |
Amount | £2,474,260 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RG/18/6/33576 |
Organisation | British Heart Foundation (BHF) |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2019 |
End | 06/2024 |
Description | UK Biobank - The Repeat Imaging Project |
Amount | £2,500,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | R39738/CN039 |
Organisation | MRC Dementias Platform UK |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 01/2023 |
Description | UK Biobank - Whole genome sequencing of 50,000 UKB participants |
Amount | £30,000,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | UK Biobank- Expansion of the UKB imaging to a 4th centre and repeat imaging assessment of 10,000 participants |
Amount | £8,500,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 12/2022 |
Description | UK Biobank Annual Scientific Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Each year UK Biobank organises their annul scientific symposium for partcipants, scientists and funders. These events are used to inform participants about the work of the Biobank, and as a tool to encourage scientists to take part. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017 |
URL | http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk |
Description | UK Biobank Scientific Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The UK Biobank Scientific Symposium included presentations about the successes and future plans of the UK Biobank. It took place on 21 June 2018 in London |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | UK Biobank participant imaging event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | UK Biobank for participants of the imaging work |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | UKBiobank participant events - 2014 - 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | UKB Biobank participants regularly attend events aimed at informing them about the work being undertaken with their data. Usually, the events last a few hours and include an overview from the chief scientist and two talks from scientists that have used UKB data. From 2014 - 2020 over 4,000 participants have taken part in events in Edinburgh (4), Manchester (4), Nottingham, Leeds, Cardiff (2), Newcastle (5), Glasgow (2), Bristol (2) and Reading(4). They are often over-subscribed and participants leave these events wishing to seek more information and support he programme in new ways (EG in imaging, genome sequencing) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
URL | http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk |