New blood test reveals risk of developing different diseases in ‘new frontier of science’

Scientists working on a blood test which could tell us our risk of developing different diseases a decade in advance have declared a “new frontier of science”.

A groundbreaking study of half a million Brits is analysing how levels of up to 5,400 proteins circulating in our body change in mid-to-late life and influence how we age and what diseases we develop from Alzheimer’s to heart disease and multiple sclerosis. The UK Biobank is leading the world in the new discipline of “proteomics” after 500,000 participants gave a blood sample when they joined and 100,000 of them have now provided a second sample up to 15 years later.

These new “protein signatures” will be combined with participants’ whole genome sequencing, MRI scans and detailed family and lifestyle data to map the causes of disease. The data will now be shared with 14 leading biopharmaceutical companies who will use it to develop drugs to prevent, treat and cure disease.

Professor Naomi Allen, chief scientist at the UK Biobank, said: “Proteomics provides an incredibly detailed snapshot of health. This new frontier of science can unveil how genetics and external factors – like diet, exercise and climate – interact, and will help to pinpoint the key causes of diseases and identify drug targets.

“It has already led to important scientific discoveries, such as identifying proteins that can help to diagnose disease – including multiple sclerosis – and helping to identify those at higher risk of developing dementia and cancer many years before clinical diagnosis. Over 19,000 researchers around the world are using UK Biobank data; adding proteomic data to everything else we hold will enable scientists to make rapid discoveries to help diagnose and treat life-altering diseases.”

A pilot project released data on nearly 3,000 circulating proteins in October 2023 from 54,000 UK Biobank participants. Until now that was the world’s largest proteomics study of its kind and led to research identifying over 14,000 links between common genetic variants and altered protein levels. Studies using the data have already led to advances in disease prediction and future targeted treatments for breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s and other brain illnesses.

This new study will increase this unique dataset ten-fold and artificial intelligence will be used to analyse it to better understand disease mechanisms. The UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project could be a “crucial piece in the jigsaw puzzle for scientists”, experts suggest, with the potential to transform healthcare by the end of the decade.

It will allow researchers to determine how genes, lifestyle and environment cause illness through changes in protein levels in the blood. There is also the possibility for blood tests to be created to diagnose autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease faster and more accurately.

Principal investigator Professor Sir Rory Collins said: “For the first time at this scale, researchers will be able to detect the exact causes of diseases by comparing how protein levels change over mid-to-late life in a large group of people. Proteomic data has already paved the way for better cancer, autoimmune and dementia diagnostics, and this truly exciting study of proteins will significantly speed up drug discovery, leading to major improvements in public health and care everywhere.”

Tens of millions of pounds in investment is being provided by the group of pharma firms, which includes the likes of Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and GSK. The funding will initially support scientists to measure protein levels from 300,000 samples – expected to take about 12 months – with this data made available to UK Biobank approved researchers in staggered releases from 2026.

Dr Chris Whelan, director of neuroscience, data science and digital health at Johnson & Johnson innovative medicine and Pharma Proteomics Project lead, said: “We’re hoping, as further groups see the value of this project, that we will get funding to do all 600,000 and I’m quite confident that we will reach that goal.”

“I’d anticipate that by the end of this decade, you’ll see transformations in healthcare and in how drug development is conducted,” Dr Whelan added. The full dataset is expected to be added to the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform by 2027.

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