Approved research

Integrating genetic, biomarker, and health record data into the discovery and development of effective therapeutics

Lay summary

The discovery, development, and effective use of new therapeutics, including drugs and gene therapies, is a complex, drawn out, and costly endeavor. Making well-informed, data-driven decisions throughout the process can have big impacts on the probability of success. The UK Biobank is a unique scientific resource, providing insights into the epidemiology and genetic contributions to a wide range of disease-relevant traits. We aim to use the genetic, biomarker, and health-related data to better understand the diseases with unmet medical need and the genetic factors that contribute to them and use that information to discover, develop, and apply therapies to treat them. This research will include combining participant data across several fields and data types to create new phenotypes (e.g. identifying diabetics actively taking metformin that are lean yet have high levels of HbA1c) to investigate the impact of genetic variants on them to understand patient populations that may best benefit from particular drug therapies that may or may not already exist. As these data impact drug discovery, drug development, or patient stratification decisions, these results will be communicated to the scientific community through publications and public presentations.