
In a remarkable achievement, supported by us, UK Biobank has completed the world’s largest whole body imaging project, scanning the brains, hearts, abdomens, blood vessels, bones and joints of 100,000 volunteers.

These scans, on this scale, show us what is happening in people’s bodies as they age so we can understand how, why and when we get sick.
Since 2015, UK Biobank’s imaging data have been released in batches and scientists around the world are using these data to develop better diagnostic tests for life-altering conditions such as heart disease, dementia and cancer. Soon, approved researchers will have access to over one billion de-identified images, from 100,000 volunteers.
How our lives influence health
Used alongside UK Biobank’s existing information on lifestyle, medical history, genetics and blood proteins collected from the same volunteers over the past 15 years, these imaging data allow researchers to see, in ways that were previously impossible, how all aspects of our lives influence our health.
We have invested £13.6 million in UK Biobank since its inception, including £3 million for the imaging project.
So far, over 1,300 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published based on UK Biobank’s imaging data. Results from these are already improving patient care in the NHS and beyond.
Faster heart scans
For example, cardiac care has been improved in over 90 countries as clinicians use an AI tool, developed using UK Biobank data, to analyse heart scans in less than a second – where it used to take nearly a quarter of an hour – allowing them time to focus on the cases that require most care.
After 11 years, 100,000 imaging appointments lasting around 5 hours each, and over £60 million investment, UK Biobank has reached this momentous milestone.
UK Biobank’s imaging project was piloted in 2014 with over 7,000 volunteers scanned – a record-breaking number at that time. The project is continuing to invite UK Biobank’s volunteers to imaging appointments beyond the 100,000 target.
“Power to transform prevention”
Professor Bryan Williams, our chief scientific and medical officer, said: “This incredible imaging milestone, and the generosity of 100,000 volunteers, means we can now investigate heart health in greater detail than ever before, to answer the biggest questions in cardiovascular disease.
“We are proud to have supported UK Biobank since its conception, almost 20 years ago, and to have seen its use of images help speed up analysis of heart scans to less than a second.
“Now, as we seek to reduce early deaths from cardiovascular disease, the findings from imaging data, combined with cutting-edge AI, have the power to transform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.”
“Unprecedented scale”
Professor Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank and BHF Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, said: “The unprecedented scale of this imaging project – more than 10 times bigger than anything that existed before – makes it possible for scientists to see patterns of disease that just couldn’t otherwise be seen.
“Collecting scans from 100,000 volunteers seemed to be a pipe dream… some experts even asked if we’d included an extra zero by mistake! This massive imaging project is making the invisible visible. What’s more, by combining these images from different parts of the body with all the genetic and lifestyle information from our volunteers, scientists are getting a far better understanding of how our bodies work.”
During each appointment, over 12,000 Magnetic Resonance (MR) images from the brain, heart and abdomen were collected per person, as well as whole-body scans that measure bone density and body fat, and an ultrasound of the carotid arteries.