The Exeter 10,000 project

Common diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia, are major health problems that can affect us all. A key part of finding the best treatments, or even better, stopping them from happening, is to understand more about how these diseases develop and why some people get them and some don’t. This will include looking closely at the role played by variations in our genetic code (a bit like looking for spelling mistakes in our body’s instruction manual).

To do this, researchers need blood samples and health information on large numbers of people with and without health problems. The Exeter 10,000 project (EXTEND) was set up to meet these needs.

Funded by the NIHR (the research arm of the NHS), EXTEND has developed into an important resource for recruiting large numbers of local people who are willing to provide blood and urine samples and answer simple health and lifestyle questions.

Learn more on the NIHR Exeter Clinical Research Facility website.