The MRC / Wellcome Trust Expert Working Group on UK Population Biomedical Collections, in their final report dated March 2000 (section 1.9), suggested that there was a need for intensive genotyping of a "panel of controls ... representing various sectors of the UK population ... for comparison of SNP allele and genotype frequencies with case series." This application describes an expeditious and cost-effective approach to the creation of such a DNA control panel, by producing immortalised cell lines and banked DNA from specimens to be collected over the next two years from members of the British 1958 birth cohort. This fieldwork is already funded by the MRC and all biological material thus derived will be managed according to the MRC guidelines for use of human tissue and biological samples in research (1999), except that our MREC-approved consent forms extend only to non-commercial medical research studies of the causes, diagnosis, treatment or outcome of disease. This nationwide sample of adults followed from birth potentially offers much richer phenotypic information than a control group newly recruited in middle age. In particular, there is prospectively collected data on traits and diseases during childhood and adolescence which would be missed by creation of a de novo panel.