LUKB: Preparing Local UK Biobank Data for Analysis

Background While UK Biobank data holds immense potential for human health research, its complex pre-processing steps involving decryption, extraction, and code mapping often act as a barrier for researchers, diverting them from their core research questions. A freely available tool for preparing UK Biobank data would reduce the workload of researchers and the costs produced by alternatively using UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (RAP). Results We developed LUKB, an R Shiny-based web tool that simplifies UK Biobank data preparation by automating pre-processing tasks. Through simple actions, researchers can add downloaded UK Biobank data to LUKB, achieving rapid data decryption, efficient extraction, and accurate code mapping effortlessly. Conclusion LUKB reduces pre-processing time, allowing researchers to dedicate more time to their scientific endeavors, and provide an alternative to UK Biobank RAP to minimize costs. LUKB is freely available at Github ( https://github.com/HaiGenBuShang/LUKB ).