A project to enhance a new pregnancy biobank that will help researchers from the UK and around the world find out more about the causes of childhood illness by studying children from all cultures and backgrounds is due to commence thanks to a £1.5 million Wellcome Trust grant.

Professor Debbie Lawlor from Bristol’s School of Social and Community Medicine, who is leading the project, together with colleagues from the universities of Bradford and Leeds and York, have been awarded the funding to develop the Born in Bradford (BiB) bioresource.

BiB is a new pregnancy cohort that recruited ~14,000 women during their gestational oral glucose tolerance tests at 26 weeks and is following these women, their partners and offspring over time. The grant will fund transfer of the BiB biobank to Bristol, record linkage of parents and children to primary and secondary care health data and to education data and enhancing data access and public engagement.

The study, entitled ‘The Born in Bradford (BiB) Study an international biomedical resource for exploring genetic and early life determinants of health and development in a deprived multi-ethnic population’ is due to commence on 1 February 2014.

More information about BiB can be found on the Born in Bradford study website.