Register for our 2025 conference
Join us on Monday 8 December 2025.
UK Biobank works closely with our active community of researchers to ensure our comprehensive biomedical dataset is continually improving.
Influence future data
We encourage researchers from industry, charities, and academia to share suggestions for improving UK Biobank’s data to help drive scientific discoveries and improve human health.
We also welcome proposals to collect new information via online questionnaires. Find out more about submitting a proposal on the Community.
Strategic Oversight Committee
The Strategic Oversight Committee guides the development of UK Biobank to ensure that we are enabling scientists internationally to conduct a wide range of health-related research in the public interest.
Expert working groups
Drawing on their varied expertise, each working group supports UK Biobank in identifying, developing, and supervising the execution of new data collection that provides the most scientific value to the global health research community.
These working groups have been pivotal to the design and delivery of large-scale projects, such as whole-genome sequencing on the full cohort of half a million participants, and detailed imaging visits for 100,000 participants.
UK Biobank’s working groups comprise a diverse range of international experts. Each group plays a key advisory role in supporting the Scientific and Executive Team to develop and implement important enhancements to UK Biobank to support world-leading health research.
UK Biobank’s expert working groups are as follows:
Genetics
Genetics
- Chair: Professor Matthew Hurles (Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK)
- Professor Matt Loose (University of Nottingham, UK)
- Professor Gil McVean (University of Oxford, UK/Genomics PLC)
- Dr Cordelia Langford (Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK)
- Dr Thomas Keane (European Bioinformatics Institute, UK)
- Professor Michael Dunn (Wellcome, UK)
- Professor Nicole Soranzo (Cambridge University, UK)
- Dr Tim Peakman (University of Leeds, UK)
- Dr Lon Cardon (The Jackson Laboratory, USA )
Imaging
Imaging
- Chair: Professor Paul Matthews (The Rosalind Franklin Institute/UK DRI/Imperial College London, UK)
- Professor Andrew Blamire (Translational and Clinical Research Institute, University of Nottingham, UK)
- Professor Jimmy Bell (Research Centre for Optimal Health, University of Westminster, UK)
- Dr Tony Goldstone (Imperial College London, UK)
- Professor Nick Harvey (MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, University of Southampton, UK)
- Professor Paul Leeson (University of Oxford, UK/Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust)
- Professor Karla Miller (University of Oxford, UK/Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging/WIN Physics Group)
- Professor Stefan Neubauer (University of Oxford, UK/University of Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research/Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK)
- Professor Steffen Petersen (William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK/Barts Health NHS Trust, UK)
- Professor Stephen Smith (University of Oxford, UK)
Informatics
Informatics
- Chair: Dr Will Salerno (Regeneron Genetics Center, USA)
- George Asimenos (DNAnexus, USA)
- Ben Busby (NVIDIA, USA)
- Danielle Ciofani (Broad Institute, USA)
- Rebecca Cosgriff (LifeArc, UK)
- Dr Madeleine Cule (Calico, UK)
- Professor Alejandro Frangi (The Christabel Pankhurst Institute, Lead / NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre / University of Manchester, UK)
- David Glazer (Verily Life Sciences, USA)
- Professor Anna Hansell (University of Leicester, UK)
- Professor Claudia Langenberg (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
- Dr Augusto Rendon (Genomics England, UK)
- Professor Daniel Rueckert (Imperial College London, UK / University of Munich, Germany)
- Sebastian Wasilewski (AstraZeneca, UK)
- Joseph Watts (Department of Health and Social Care, UK)
- Sergei Yakneen (Isomorphic Labs, UK)
- Professor Chris Yau (Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, UK)
- Dr Alan Young (University of Oxford, UK)
Biological samples
Biological samples
- Chair: Professor Paul Elliott (Imperial College London, UK)
- Professor John Danesh – (University of Cambridge, UK / Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK)
- Dr Olli Dufva (Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK)
- Professor David Eyre – (Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Michael Hill (Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Manuel Mayr (British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, Imperial College London, UK)
- Professor Jonathan Mill (University of Exeter Medical School, UK)
- Professor Valerie O’Donnell (University of Cardiff, UK)
- Dr Sarah Teichmann (Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK)
- Professor Cornelia van Duijn (Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Jennifer van Eyke (Cedars Sinai, California, USA)
- Professor Anthony Whetton (University of Surrey, UK)
Cognition
Cognition
- Dr Dorina Cadar (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK / Social Society for Medicine and Population Health, UK)
- Dr Chloe Fawns-Ritchie (University of Edinburgh, UK / Chronic Pain Research Group, University of Dundee, UK)
- Professor John Gallacher (University of Oxford, UK / Dementias Platform UK)
- Professor Masud Husain (University of Oxford, UK / Dementia Research Oxford, UK)
- Dr Ivan Koychev (University of Oxford, UK; Dementias Platform UK / Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
- Professor Vanessa Raymont (University of Oxford, UK / Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust)
- Professor James Rowe (University of Cambridge, UK / University of Copenhagen, Denmark / Wellcome Trust)
Dementia
Dementia
- Chair: Professor Paul Matthews (The Rosalind Franklin Institute / UK Dementia Research Institute / Imperial College London, UK / Medical Research Council Neurosciences and Mental Health Board)
- Dr Ana Antunes-Martins (UK Dementia Research Institute)
- Professor Siddharthan Chandran (UK Dementia Research Institute / University of Edinburgh, UK / Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences)
- Professor Aiden Doherty (Wellcome Trust / University of Oxford, UK)
- Dr Megan Eldred (University of Cambridge, UK)
- Professor John Gallacher (University of Oxford, UK / Dementias Platform UK)
- Professor Masud Husain (University of Oxford, UK / Dementia Research Oxford, UK)
- Professor Clare Mackay (University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Karla Miller (University of Oxford, UK / Wellcome Trust / Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging Physics Group)
- Professor Vanessa Raymont (University of Oxford, UK / Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust)
- Professor Lynn Rochester (Newcastle University, UK / National Institute of Health Research)
- Professor James Rowe (University of Cambridge, UK / University of Copenhagen, Denmark / Wellcome Trust)
- Nadeem Sarwar (Dementia Mission, Novo Nordisk)
- Professor Stephen Smith (University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Cornelia van Duijn (University of Oxford, UK)
Eye and vision
Eye and vision
UK Biobank Eye Consortium – Eye and Vision Repeat Assessment Working Group
- Chair: Professor Anthony Khawaja (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
- Professor Alicja Rudnicka (St George’s, University of London, UK)
- Professor Andrew Lotery (University of Southampton, UK)
- Professor Chris Hammond (King’s College London, UK)
- Professor Christopher Owen (St George’s, University of London, UK)
- Dr Denize Atan (University of Bristol, UK / Bristol Eye Hospital)
- Dun Jack Fu (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
- Professor Paul Foster (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
- Dr Pirro Hysi (King’s College London, UK)
- Professor James Morgan (Cardiff University, UK)
- Mr Praveen Patel (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
- Dr Axel Petzold (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
- Professor Jugnoo Rahi (University College London, UK / Great Ormond Street Hospital)
- Dr Lola Solebo (University College London, UK / Great Ormond Street Hospital)
- Dr Tom MacGillivray (University of Edinburgh, UK)
- Professor Tunde Peto (Queen’s University Belfast, UK
- Dr Siegfried Wagner (University College London, UK / Moorfields Eye Hospital)
Frailty and ageing
Frailty and ageing
- Chair: Professor Nicholas Harvey (University of Southampton, UK / MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre)
- Dr Dimitris Vlachopoulos (University of Exeter, UK)
- Dr Elizabeth (Beth) Curtis (University of Southampton, UK)
- Professor Eugene McCloskey (University of Sheffield, UK)
- Professor Roger Fielding (Tufts University, USA / Body Composition Analysis Center and DXA Laboratory)
- Professor Kate Ward (University of Southampton, UK)
- Dr Alex Ireland (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
- Professor Mattias Lorentzon (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Hearing
Hearing
- Professor Michael Akeroyd (University of Nottingham, UK)
- Professor Dennis Barbour (Washington University, USA)
- Professor David Moore (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA / University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, USA)
- Professor Astrid Van Wieringen (KU Leuven, Belgium)
- Professor Michael Stone (University of Manchester, UK)
Remote monitoring
Remote monitoring
- Chair: Professor Aiden Doherty (University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Benjamin Barratt (Imperial College London, UK / Environmental Research Group)
- Professor Cecilia Mascolo (University of Cambridge, UK)
- Professor Charlotte Edwardson (University of Leicester, UK)
- Professor David Sharp (Imperial College Faculty of Medicine / UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology / Imperial College Clinical Imaging Facility / Imperial Centre for Injury Studies)
- Professor Derk-Jan Dijk (University of Surrey, UK / Surrey Sleep Research Centre)
- Dr Evangelos Oikonomou (Yale School of Medicine, USA)
- Dr Jackie MacArthur (British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre, UK)
- Professor Lynn Rochester (Newcastle University, UK / National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre)
- Dr Michael Snyder (Snyder Lab, Stanford Medicine Department of Genetics, USA)
- Dr Peter Charlton (University of Cambridge, UK)
- Dr Rohan Khera (Yale University, USA / Yale New Haven Hospital / Cardiovascular Data Science (CarDS) Lab)
- Professor Rosalind Picard (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA)
- Dr Stefan van Duijvenboden (University of Oxford, UK)
- Professor Tim Chico (University of Sheffield, UK / Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust / British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre)
