World’s Largest Body Scanning Project Demonstrates the True Worth of Biobank Software

World’s Largest Body Scanning Project Demonstrates the True Worth of Biobank Software

While many people living in the modern world are aware of the many advantages biobank software offers our society, it can sometimes be difficult to visualize exactly how this technology is helping our health and improving our future. Somewhere, we are aware that laboratory management software is being used for everything from environmental research to devising new treatments for serious medical problems. However, it can be hard to understand exactly what progress is being made, especially when controversial topics like cancer and dementia are at stake. Fortunately, a new project from the United Kingdom may help change that: called Biobank, the initiative is slated to become the world’s largest body-scanning project, collecting vast amounts of data to help determine why patients get cancer, heart disease, dementia and other conditions.

Biobank UK plans to scan the entire bodies of 100,000 volunteers to determine how their health is affected by their lifestyles, environments and genes. Selected from 500,000 adults who supplied their DNA, the research team will also conduct studies on the participants’ diets, fitness, health histories, and cognitive abilities. This data will be compared with their DNA, which is being stored using biobanking and freezer software at a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius, or -112 degrees Fahrenheit.

The project is extremely exciting for many people in the UK who are suffering from conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease. While participants’ will not have access to their scans and genetic information unless the researchers discover a serious problem, the research team says that the data being analyzed could be instrumental in helping prevent these problems in future generations. However, this puts Biobank UK’s scientists in a delicate situation: if a incurable tumor, for example, is discovered while reviewing the scans and DNA being stored with their biobank software, telling the patient could cause nothing more than avoidable stress and higher insurance payments. This risk, fortunately, is seem by almost every participant as secondary to the altruistic aims of the project. Next time you wonder what use biobank software is to modern society, remember that the information being collected and processed by only one project could mean better health for future generations.