Approved research

Use of UK Biobank genetic data to support drug discovery and development

Lay summary

The study of human genetic variation is an emerging paradigm for anticipating target-related disease-relevance, [including safety and efficacy, i.e. the therapeutic window]. We aim to use UK Biobank data to identify and validate new drug targets for diseases within the research interest of Bayer, which includes diseases of the eye, the cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive organ systems, as well as various types of cancers, e.g. in Immunooncology, we are also interested in autoimmune, immunological and chronic inflammatory conditions. In addition , we would like to explore combinations of genetic and non-genetic patient characteristicss to better understand and stratify disease sub-phenotypes. The proposed research aims to identify new ways to understand the disease biology, to develop therapies better matching to still un-met medical needs in subpopulations of patients. Hence this research meets UK Biobank?s purpose by improving the prevention and treatment of illness. We plan to do three primary types of analyses: 1) genetic association analyses of patient groups versus controls within UK Biobank 2) genetic association analyses of UK Biobank controls with external patient populations and 3) analyses of broad phenotypic consequences of variants related to targets of interest (PheWAS). We request access to the full cohort of ~500,000 individuals.