UK Biobank is a large British prospective biobank: de-identified biosamples and health data from about 500,000 volunteers. Participants were recruited in 2006–2010 at ages 40–69 and are being followed for decades.
Thanks to the scale and depth of its data, UK Biobank has become one of the main resources of the epidemiology of aging and a data source for epigenetic clocks and risk models.
What it is
UK Biobank is a long-term cohort study designed to investigate how genes, lifestyle and environment influence the development of disease. It has about half a million participants recruited at ages 40–69, with follow-up planned for at least 30 years. This makes the database unique in its combination of size and length of follow-up.
What data have been collected
For the participants, genetic data have been collected (by 2023 — whole-genome sequencing of all 500,000 people), blood and urine biomarkers, physical measurements (blood pressure, height, weight, bone density), imaging (MRI of the brain, heart and abdomen, DXA), lifestyle questionnaires and physical-activity data. All of this is linked to NHS medical records. Over 15 million biosamples are stored.
Its role in the epidemiology of aging
The huge sample with long-term follow-up makes it possible to look for links between risk factors and outcomes — from cardiovascular diseases to cancer and dementia. Aging clocks are trained on these data, and a Cox model is used to estimate the mortality risk. The resource is open to approved researchers: thousands of peer-reviewed papers have been published on it. In spirit and aims it is close to the American NHANES, but it is built as a prospective cohort.
Calculate using this marker
Calculators where UK Biobank is used directly:
Frequently asked questions
How many people are in UK Biobank?
About 500,000 volunteers from the United Kingdom, recruited in 2006–2010 at ages 40–69 and followed for decades.
Why is UK Biobank so important for aging research?
The combination of size, depth of data (genes, biomarkers, MRI, NHS records) and long-term follow-up makes it possible to study risk factors reliably and build age models.