Table 3 Assay data generated from biological samples in UK Biobank.
From: UK Biobank: a globally important resource for cancer research
Sample assay | Details | Number of participants |
|---|---|---|
Biochemistry markers | Biomarkers assayed in plasma, serum, red blood cells, and urine samples; includes established risk factors for disease (e.g., lipids for vascular disease, sex hormones for cancer), diagnostic measures (e.g., HbA1c for diabetes and rheumatoid factor for arthritis), and other measures (such as liver and renal function tests) | Baseline: 500,000; Resurvey: 20,000 |
Infectious agents | 20 major pathogens (including herpes viruses, hepatitis B and C viruses, HIV, HPV, C. trachomatis, H. pylori) | Baseline: 50,000* |
Genotyping | Genome-wide genotyping chip with >800,000 markers; imputed to ~96 M variants using the Haplotype Reference Consortium and UK10K haplotype reference panels | Baseline: 488,000 |
Whole-Exome Sequencing | Whole-exome sequencing data (covers 1–2% of the genome)—multi-sample joint call data, variant-level and raw sequence data | Baseline: 488,000 |
Whole-Genome Sequencing | Whole-genome sequencing data (full genome)—multi-sample joint call data, variant-level and raw sequence data | Baseline: 488,000† |
Telomeres | Telomere length | Baseline: 500,000; Resurvey: 20,000 |
NMR metabolomics | Approx. 200 circulating metabolites, predominantly lipids | Baseline: 120,000; Resurvey: 3000 |
Proteomics | Approx. 3000 circulating proteins | Baseline: 50,000 (pending‡) |
