Summary
Around 100,000 of the 500,000 adults aged 40-69 and currently enrolled in UK Biobank are to be invited to take part in detailed imaging of their brain, heart and other major organs. This will be the world’s biggest scanning project. The scans obtained will be compared and cross-referenced with DNA data and detailed health information supplied previously by volunteers in UK Biobank.
“It is hoped that the brain imaging may yield clues as to the causes of dementia and help improve early diagnosis”.
Evidence obtained by UK Biobank should become more powerful in future years as participants develop various diseases associated with ageing.
Reference
Walsh, F. (2014). World’s biggest scanning project to track diseases. London: BBC Health News, May 2nd 2014.
An update, featuring the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC):
Reference
Walsh, F. (2017). What the brain’s wiring looks like. London: BBC Health News, July 3rd 2017.
On the European (Lifebrain) Initiative
Possibly also of interest:
Reference
Walhovd, KB. Fjell, AM. [and] Westerhausen, R. [et al]; Lifebrain Consortium. (2018). Healthy minds 0-100 years: optimising the use of European brain imaging cohorts (“Lifebrain”). European Psychiatry: the Journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists. February 12th 2018. [Epub ahead of print].
