100,000 brains: UK Biobank Imaging Study releases first batch of disease progression data

[R]esearchers [have recently] released the first results from the UK Biobank Imaging Study, a massive effort that ultimately aims to scan the brains of 100,000 people and use the data in conjunction with detailed health information to investigate disease progression during aging.

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“What we’re aiming to do is get a glimpse of the various kinds of markers that we might be able to identify that then presage problems later on,” [explains Karla Miller, lead author of the study.]

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The first batch of data contains tens of thousands of significant correlations between various health measures. For example, the preliminary results revealed a link between increased alcohol consumption and signs of injury to brain connections, along with another link between tobacco intake and imaging signals associated with increased iron deposits in the brain.

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The researchers are hopeful that further unraveling such complex relationships will eventually allow them to use health measures from the study to predict who will go on to develop a particular disease or who may respond well to a specific intervention.

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