UK Biobank Reaches 100,000 Scans in World’s Largest Human Imaging Study

The UK Biobank project has scanned its 100,000th volunteer, marking a major milestone in what has become the world’s largest medical imaging study. Over 11 years, this initiative has created more than a billion detailed scans of participants’ brains, hearts, and other organs.

What Is the UK Biobank Imaging Project?

UK Biobank, launched in 2003, is one of the world’s largest health data repositories. It includes health, genetic, and biological data from 500,000 middle-aged UK volunteers. Since 2014, 100,000 of those participants have also undergone full-body scans using MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound technologies.

Each scanning session lasts about five hours and is conducted across four sites in England. Volunteers undergo five types of scans, and although results are anonymized, they may be alerted to serious findings.

“Researchers are using this data to detect disease early and design better treatments,” said Prof Naomi Allen, chief scientist at UK Biobank.

Why It Matters

The project allows scientists to observe how the human body changes with age. It also helps identify links between organ structure and the development of diseases.

Researchers now combine these imaging datasets with genetic, lifestyle, and blood test data to understand risks for diseases like:

  • Heart disease

  • Cancer

  • Dementia

  • Liver conditions

  • Psychiatric disorders

For example, AI analysis has shown that:

  • A detailed liver scan can replace invasive surgery for diagnosis

  • Minor daily alcohol intake may increase the risk of dementia

  • Structural heart changes may raise the risk of depression

Powered by Data and AI

With over 30 petabytes of anonymized health data, the UK Biobank supports global research. Teams from universities, governments, nonprofits, and the private sector can apply for access. Most pay £3,000–£9,000 to help cover operational costs.

Louise Thomas, a professor at the University of Westminster, noted the project has transformed research.

“We can now extract key information from scans in minutes thanks to AI, which would have taken us thousands of years manually.”

Over 17,000 peer-reviewed studies have used UK Biobank data so far, with new papers published weekly.

Meet the 100,000th Volunteer

The latest participant, Steve, a retired sales worker from southern England, was scanned at a site near Reading. Motivated by his mother’s dementia diagnosis, Steve said he joined the project to support future medical advances.

“I want to give back so the next generation can learn from people like me,” he said.

Funding and Global Reach

The imaging project is supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Wellcome Trust, and the British Heart Foundation. Repeat scans are funded by Calico (a Google/Alphabet company) and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

UK Biobank is one of the few large-scale biobanks offering open access to international researchers, placing it among the top 10 health data resources worldwide.