The UK Biobank launches researcher access
The UK biobank has been some time in the making, but after years of preparation, recruitment and screening of participants, this week it opened its doors for researchers to access data and biological materials. The UK Biobank is probably the best example of how a concerted effort and the associated funding can lead to a huge and potentially very important epidemiological resource. It has set a trend across Europe for the set up of a string of national cohorts / biobanks, which will offer epidemiologists an unprecedented scale of access to well documented person-time.