UK Biobank Sets New Global Record for Imaging Study

The world’s largest whole-body imaging project has now scanned the brains, hearts, abdomens, joints and blood vessels of 100,000 volunteers.

Over the last decade, UK Biobank imaging data has changed how dementia is diagnosed in some of the UK’s clinics, helped scientists understand the neurological symptoms of COVID-19 and enhanced our understanding of rare diseases.

Imaging at an unprecedented scale

The UK Biobank is one of the world’s largest long-term prospective biobank studies. Since 2006, it has collected biological and medical data from half a million people aged 40–69 years living in the UK. 

Stefan Neubauer, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford, recalled how the imaging element of the study first took shape: “In 2007, I got a phone call from Rory Collins, out of the blue, and he casually asked the question: ‘Stefan, can we do a study with scans in 100,000 people?’”

Professor Sir Rory Collins has been the UK Biobank’s principal investigator and chief executive since 2005. Neubauer – one of many expert scientists supporting the imaging project – said his initial thought was that this would be “impossible” – no study had attempted anything like it before. Nonetheless, he was intrigued.

Collecting whole-body imaging data from thousands of people would not be an easy feat. UK Biobank experts would need to identify a pathway to collect four scans easily – two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a whole-body X-ray and an ultrasound scan – in a single clinical visit.

UK Biobank imaging milestone: 100,000 volunteers and counting

The UK Biobank imaging project launched with a pilot study in 2014, which scanned over 7,000 volunteers – a record-breaking achievement at the time.

In 2016, the project’s main phase began when 100,000 volunteers from the 500,000 study cohort were invited to an imaging appointment at dedicated imaging centers across the country.

To keep clinic visits as short as possible, the UK Biobank team developed a new approach that captures high-quality images efficiently – reducing appointment times for all four scans to just five hours.

“My wife and I signed up to UK Biobank because we wanted to give back to medical research. We’ve all had family members who’ve had health issues and we’re all getting older so if we can help scientists discover new ways to prevent and treat illness then that’s a worthwhile cause that we’re delighted to be part of,” said Steve, the 100,000^th UK Biobank participant to be scanned.

“I’ve loved being the 100,000^th UK Biobank participant to be scanned and the team at the imaging center has been amazing. The whole imaging day has been a great experience and it’s been really enlightening to learn even more about what UK Biobank is about,” he continued.

The project is continuing to invite UK Biobank volunteers for imaging appointments beyond its original target of 100,000 participants.

How UK biobank data is powering new discoveries

After gathering brain, body and bone scans from 100,000 people, the UK Biobank project now ranks as the largest whole-body imaging effort anywhere in the world.

All UK Biobank data is released to approved research scientists via the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP). So far, over 1,300 research papers have used the image data to study a variety of conditions, from neurological disorders to heart disease.

Neuroscientist Clare Mackay from the University of Oxford said she is “just mind-blown” by this achievement. Currently, her team is working on generating a reference chart for the adult brain using UK Biobank scans.

In 2022, Mackay was part of a research team that adapted UK Biobank’s brain imaging process for use in a routine memory clinic at the Oxford Brain Health Clinic. Computer tomography (CT) scans are typically used in these clinics, as they are faster than MRI, but produce lower-resolution images. Using UK Biobank’s imaging process, MRI images can be obtained in 15 minutes and the higher-quality images enable clinicians to differentiate dementia from other conditions more accurately, Mackay said.

That same year, UK Biobank imaging data was used to investigate how SARS-CoV-2 infection impacts the human brain. In a study of 785 UK Biobank participants that had received 2 separate MRI scans, participants were grouped into those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between scans (401) and controls who did not (384), and their scans were compared. SARS-CoV-2 positive cases demonstrated a reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue contrast in orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, and increased tissue damage in regions connected to the olfactory cortex – the area of the brain associated with sense of smell.

UK Biobank imaging data is also being used to study the effects of aging on our organs, develop tools to predict the early onset of almost 40 diseases and explore the storage of fat across people with different body mass indexes, among other research projects.

In 2022, a second phase of the project was launched, which aimed to repeat imaging scans on 60,000 of the 100,000 scanned participants 2 years after their first imaging appointment. Approximately 13,000 participants have attended for a second visit already, and it’s estimated that this phase of the project will reach completion in 2029.