UK Biobank and IMU to profile immune cells in 80,000 blood samples for AI research

UK Biobank is to add a single-cell immune profiling layer to its cohort, working with IMU Biosciences, Waters Corporation and Ultima Genomics on blood samples from 80,000 participants, the partners said on 19 October 2026 ¹². The stated ambition is to extend the work to all 500,000 people in the cohort ¹².

What the project will produce

The study will generate more than 100 million multi-omic immune data points from each sample ¹. IMU brings its High Definition Immunology platform. Waters supplies the BD FACSDiscover cell analyser and the BD Rhapsody single-cell multiomics platform, and Ultima's UG200 sequencer produces the readouts ². Ultima describes the output as a foundational dataset for AI, and says the UG200 was validated with the BD Rhapsody platform during selection for performance, cost and scale ².

The project begins in 2026. The new layer sits on top of the genomic, imaging, clinical and lifestyle data UK Biobank already holds on its participants, all de-identified, and the results will flow back to UK Biobank over time for approved researchers to use ². The partners say the aim is to relate immune profiles to disease risk, progression, treatment response and long-term outcomes ¹.

Prof Naomi Allen, chief scientist at UK Biobank, said scientists would be able to study "which specific immune cell changes contribute to the future risk of conditions like cancer, diabetes and dementia" ¹.

The UK government has part-funded the work. IMU has received a £1.57 million Sovereign AI grant to help deliver it ¹.

What it means for the market

For pharma and health-data buyers, the value is access. UK Biobank says more than 22,000 researchers in more than 60 countries use its data, and that over 18,000 peer-reviewed papers have drawn on it ². An immune layer at this scale would give that user base, which includes companies, a way to test immune biomarkers against outcomes already recorded in the cohort. Allen said the map would help find new drug targets and help clinicians judge who is likely to respond to a given treatment ¹.

The commercial pull is in immunology. Market research estimates cited by pharmaphorum put immunology and inflammation at around 15% to 20% of pharma R&D projects, second to oncology at 35% to 40% ¹.

For suppliers, the deal is a reference win. Ultima already sequences for the 600,000-sample UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project, and its chief executive Gilad Almogy said a study of this size needs sequencing that is high-throughput and at "extremely low cost" ². The project follows a separate UK Biobank collaboration with the University of Exeter, supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Illumina, to chart epigenetic variation ¹. UK Biobank is building several industry-run omics layers at once, each one adding to what a single application for access can return.

Caveats

The announcement describes a plan, not results. Neither source gives a completion date for the 80,000 samples, a timetable for the move to 500,000, the total cost or the access terms for commercial users. The main technical description comes from a supplier's press release ². The data will reach approved researchers only over time as they are returned to UK Biobank ².