While early 20th century research tended to focus on single cause and effect public health problems and interventions, today’s public health challenges require a broader understanding of how multiple, and often interacting, factors that operate throughout our lives contribute to health and disease.

MRC-funded research is rapidly increasing our knowledge of the role of fetal and early postnatal experience on subsequent health, and on the interplay between environmental exposures, lifestyle and genetic disposition.

The UK Biobank
The UK Biobank project, the world's largest study of the role of nature and nurture in health and disease, will be central to progress in this area over the coming decades. The project, which was launched with funding from the MRC, Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health will start to collect genetic, medical record and lifestyle data from 500,000 45-69 year old volunteers next year.

Within 10 years, this unprecedented resource will help researchers to begin to unravel the complex interactions between genes, environment and lifestyle that underlie some of the world’s most devastating disorders, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Ultimately the project will lead to improved diagnostic tools, prevention strategies and tailor-made treatments for these and other diseases that tend to strike later in life. The wide ranging clinical, health promotion and public health benefits will be felt throughout society.