BioBank is finally open: another gold mine of publicly available data

Yes it's true! After years of delay the BioBank is finally ready and open for public access.

As reported also on ScienceInsider, the ambitious project to build a repository for biological data from about 500,000 individuals is now completed. The £62 million project, funded mainly by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, has tested one in every 50 people between the ages of 40 and 69 years, from across the UK country, between 2006 and 2010. The collection of samples and data will continue. Participants will be followed until they die, their details updated from National Health Service records, and some tests repeated. Each year brings more detail about each person and more cases of disease.

Using the web portal every researcher can now rely on this gold mine of biological data. Besides biological samples, a researcher can have access to a wide range of information on volunteers, including their height, weight, lung function, and blood pressure, as well as medical history and lifestyle data.