China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB)

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Chronic diseases, such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer, are the leading causes of disability and death worldwide. Understanding what causes these diseases in different populations can lead to improvements in disease prevention, risk prediction and development of new treatments. One way of identifying causes of disease is through blood-based “prospective cohort” studies, in which large numbers of apparently healthy individuals from the general population are interviewed and measured, and have blood collected and stored for future tests of genetic and non-genetic biomarkers. The health status of the study participants is then monitored “prospectively” to see who develops what disease. When sufficiently large numbers of people have developed a particular disease (“cases”), their blood and other characteristics are compared with those from “controls” who have not developed the disease. We have established one of the world’s largest studies of this kind, involving 512,000 adults in China during 2004-08. After 10-year follow-up, large numbers of disease outcomes have been accumulated, which, together with other lifestyle, environment, genetic and blood biomarker data, will enable scientists to make important discoveries about genetic and non-genetic causes of many diseases. The study findings will help improve disease prevention, prediction and treatment, benefiting populations worldwide.