UK Biobank set for £16m boost

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle has today announced that research being supported by the UK Biobank will benefit from a £16m boost, thanks to a new partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will help improve infrastructure and ultimately enhance health data usage.

The investment comes in the form of $10m worth of cloud computing credits that will help the UK Biobank store and handle its data better, as well as access other AWS services like AI and machine learning.

The investment is the equivalent of around £8m which will be matched by the UK Government as part of the public-philanthropic consortium that was announced last autumn to ensure the biobank continues to be at the sharp end of medical research around the world.

“This research is helping us develop the treatments that will improve and hopefully prolong all our lives,” said Peter Kyle while visiting the UK Biobank today.

He added: “This contribution from AWS — matched by government — will mean that UK Biobank has the cloud infrastructure it needs, to underpin such a vast undertaking. This is just the start of our plan to work hand-in-hand with industry and academia, to harness the power of life sciences to grow our economy and boost healthcare.”

The UK Biobank has supported the publication of more than 10,000 research papers on everything from dementia and Parkinson’s to diabetes and cancer. Over 30,000 researchers from more than 90 countries are registered to access the biobank.

“While the UK is an enviable destination for life sciences research, tackling the profound challenges that diseases like dementia and cancer pose to society, and the economy, is simply too vast a task for any one country to face alone,” said science minister Lord Vallance.

“By giving approved researchers the world over, access to an unrivalled volume of health data, UK Biobank exemplifies how a collaborative approach to science can make both the UK and the world healthier and more prosperous.”

It is being supported by a growing number of philanthropic and industry partners, whose investment the government has promised to match — up to £25m. Today’s news means the target of £50m of overall funding has almost been achieved.

The investment was kickstarted last October when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Citadel founder Ken Griffin donated more than £16m.

The UK biobank is regularly augmented with new data, including the:

• largest ever set of whole genome sequencing data;
• largest ever proteomic dataset; and
• on-going results of the world’s largest imaging study of whole-body scanning.

On the new investment, CEO at the UK Biobank, Professor Sir Rory Collins, said: “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.”

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