UK Biobank: what can it do, how you can use it and how is it being used?

As biobanks and databases continue to proliferate throughout the life sciences, we can often become preoccupied with their depth and complexity, without paying enough attention to the practical aspects of what they can do, how they can be applied and how best to use them.As a result, these tools are often underutilized and underexplored; researchers worldwide may miss the schemes and modified charges that make these databases accessible to all researchers, while others may assume that the specific data they need can’t be found or easily analyzed within them. Here, we speak to key representatives from UK Biobank (Stockport, UK) – one of the largest and most detailed human biobanks in existence – to bring you all you need to know about the data contained, how to access it, how to make sure your application is quick and successful, how it is being used now and how it could be used better.