Medical discoveries are often the result of years of hard work rather than a sudden breakthrough. Rory Collins leads one of the largest research efforts in the world: UK Biobank, which collects health data from half a million people over time. The project’s unique feature is that the data is available to any researcher, making it a valuable resource for scientific innovation.
Since its inception in 2006, the data from UK Biobank has been used in over 3,000 scientific papers and has led to groundbreaking concepts like the polygenic risk score. The full impact of this data will continue to unfold as over 2,800 projects are still ongoing. UK Biobank also aims to collect more data as participants age, with the hope of shedding light on late-life diseases such as dementia. To make the data more diverse, UK Biobank has supported international data-gathering projects in countries like Mexico, China, and the U.S., with plans to expand to more countries in the future.
Despite the challenges ahead, Collins is driven by the impact that UK Biobank is having on medical research. He considers himself fortunate to work on such a groundbreaking project, noting that the project has led to numerous scientific publications without him even having to write a single word.