The UK Biobank has received an upgrade to support research aimed at developing new ways of preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases such as dementia, diabetes, Parkinson’s, and cancer. Peter Kyle, the Science and Technology Secretary, announced a £16 million boost funded through a partnership of public, private, and philanthropic groups. Amazon Web Services is providing about £8 million in cloud computing credits to securely store and manage the Biobank’s growing health data, matched by £8 million in government investment. This funding coincides with a previous public-philanthropic consortium that was established in October last year to ensure the long-term future of the facility. The facility, with half a million UK volunteers contributing to it, is the leading data source for medical research worldwide. Accessible to approved researchers on the UK Biobank Research Analysis platform, which runs on AWS and enabled by DNAnexus, the database is used to conduct medical breakthroughs, from early detection of cardiac disease to the development of Alzheimer’s tests.
John Davies, Director of UK Public Sector at Amazon Web Services, applauded the extension of the use of the AWS Cloud and the vital data that will support medical breakthroughs. The AWS enables the secure storage of the Biobank’s vast amount of health data and quickly scales up the data platform to include future data. Professor Sir Rory Collins, CEO, and Principal Investigator of UK Biobank, expressed appreciation to Amazon Web Services and the UK government for contributing to the funding. Delighted that the data provided by volunteers can be accessed by even more researchers worldwide, Collins said the funding would enable vital data to reach researchers from less wealthy countries and those starting out in research. By bringing together researchers with varied perspectives and questions to investigate the data, the CEO believed that improving the lives of everyone, everywhere, would come with better chances.
