In order to enhance further the value of the UK Biobank resource to researchers, UK Biobank has embarked on a project to measure a wide range of biochemical markers in biological samples collected at baseline (2006-2010) in all participants with an available sample. This comprised about 480,000 participant samples from the recruitment visit and about 18,000 samples collected at a repeat assessment (2012-2013).

This document describes the approach that UK Biobank has taken to minimise and mitigate the effects of error (both systematic bias and random error) that such data are liable to include, in order to provide high-quality biomarker data. This includes the approach to sample collection and processing, sample retrieval, and monitoring of assay data in order to minimise drift, bias and measurement error. It also describes any issues that have been identified and the proposed solutions.

This resource can be downloaded or viewed using the link: biomarker_issues.pdf

If you have wget available (typically on linux systems), then you can also obtain a copy using the command

 wget  -nd  biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/ukb/ukb/docs/biomarker_issues.pdf