World’s largest population proteomics study underway Featured

Dan N The helpers that keep the community running smoothly. UKB Community team Communications Team
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As you may have seen in the news today, UK Biobank has announced the launch of the world’s most comprehensive proteomics study, which aspires to provide data on up to 5,400 proteins in 600,000 samples.

This includes analysing samples from all half a million UK Biobank participants, and 100,000 second samples taken up to 15 years later. When finalised, the study will enable UK Biobank-approved researchers to access a first-of-its-kind database, detailing how changes to an individual’s protein levels over mid-to-late life influence disease.  

This new study is being funded by a consortium of 14 leading biopharmaceutical companies, known as the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project.     

The UK Biobank team is very excited about the scale of this project, the incredible value we believe it will provide to our researcher community, and ultimately the significant impact we expect it will have on the study of diseases and their treatments.  

Using the data 

We anticipate that the proteomic data will be made available to our community of researchers in staggered releases from 2026, with the full dataset expected to be added to the UKB-RAP by 2027. 

To help you make the most of this resource, we encourage you to prepare in advance of the data being made available. This may include updating relevant research proposals to ensure you can fully capitalise on the data once it becomes available on the UKB-RAP. 

Until then, interested researchers can take full advantage of our existing proteomic data, all of which is available on the UKB-RAP. This was taken from our pilot project which is already the world’s largest study of its kind, measuring nearly 3,000 circulating proteins from 54,000 UK Biobank participants. Already, the results from this research, published in Nature, has been cited over 400 times. 

Click here for guidance on how to access these data. 

More about the study 

To read our full public announcement on the study - including more information on the dataset, how it will be collected, and potential applications - please click here

To read more about what the proteomic data has allowed researchers to uncover so far, please click here.  

Your thoughts 

If you have thoughts, feedback or questions regarding the study or how the data will be made available, please share them in the comment section below. 

Similarly, if there are any specific documentation or resources that you believe would be helpful for accessing and interacting with the data once available, please let us know in the comment section below. 

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