Research being used to develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s, diabetes and cancer will benefit from a £16 million boost to upgrade how UK Biobank uses and stores its growing wealth of health data.
Announced by the Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, Amazon Web Services will provide around £8 million worth of cloud computing credits to securely store and handle its wealth of health data.
This will be matched by a further £8m in government investment, and forms part of the public, private and philanthropic group set up to keep the world-leading facility at the forefront of medical research.
In October last year, a public-philanthropic consortium was set up to ensure UK Biobank’s long-term future, with initial funding donated by Eric Schmidt and Ken Griffin, and matched by government to a total of £32m.
It puts fundraising efforts in touching distance of the ultimate goal for funding which was set out when that initial funding was announced.
The world’s most advanced source of data for health research helps the life sciences sector to transform healthcare for people across the UK and worldwide. The database of in-depth genetic, health and lifestyle information comes from half a million UK volunteers.
Researchers worldwide can apply to access to an unparalleled volume of de-identified and secure data, and are using it to enable medical breakthroughs, from detecting cardiac disease earlier, to developing tests for Alzheimer’s. De-identified UK Biobank data is already accessible, securely and worldwide, for approved researchers on the UK Biobank Research Analysis platform, which is hosted on AWS and enabled by DNAnexus.
“UK Biobank is helping researchers around the world tackle some of the biggest health problems facing humanity – from dementia to heart disease – by putting an unprecedented scale of information at their fingertips,” said Kyle.
“This research is helping us develop the treatments that will improve and hopefully prolong all our lives.”
John Davies, director, UK public sector at Amazon Web Services, said: “We are delighted that UK Biobank is extending its use of the AWS Cloud to give approved researchers around the world access to the vital data that will support medical breakthroughs.
“UK Biobank has the largest dataset of whole genome sequences in the world, with data from an ageing cohort that is almost 20 years old.
“In using AWS, UK Biobank is able to store this vast amount of health data securely, and scale up the data platform quickly and easily, as more data is added in the future.”
Professor Sir Rory Collins (pictured), CEO and principal investigator of UK Biobank, added: “This contribution will make our participants very happy, as it means the data they have provided can be used by even more researchers around the world.
“We are truly grateful for this contribution from Amazon Web Services and the UK government. This means vital data can be accessed by researchers from less wealthy countries, or who are starting out in research, as well as those at large universities, charities and companies.
“By bringing together so many researchers, with different viewpoints and questions, to investigate the data, we have a much better chance of helping improve the lives of everyone, everywhere.”
Edinburgh startup wins £4.7m grant from Michael J. Fox Foundation