Overview

51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge is led from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and also comprises Cambridge University, EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.ÌýÌý

Key expertise in 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge is in unifying information on genomics, other molecular traits, and electronic health records (EHRs) to gain new insights into the underlying causes and biology of diseases.Ìý

51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge researchers work closely with the East of England Sub-national Secure Data Environment (SDE) and Cambridge University Hospitals Trust to make NHS data available to answer a range of health-related questions.ÌýÌý

Regional co-leads

 

Regional Expertise

  • Multi-modal data: Building and using longitudinal population cohorts and trials, with multi-modal data (e.g. genomic, other molecular traits and electronic health records) for aetiological research. Using genetic and molecular epidemiology to help accelerate the translation of research findings into therapies.Ìý
  • Data science and AI: developing and applying tools to curate (e.g. from local and national electronic health record resources) and analyse complex data.ÌýÌý
  • Diverse population cohorts: using worldwide evidence from cohort studies in low- and middle-income countries to consider the major causes of non-communicable disease, leveraging the environmental and genetic diversity in these populations to strengthen understanding of risk factors in these countries.ÌýÌý
  • Research capacity: training cross-disciplinary researchers to address grand challenges in health data research.Ìý
    • With the East of England sub-national SDE, we are creating datasets from regional hospitals that can be used to answer questions relating to cardiovascular disease, and improve patient outcomes.Ìý
    • 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge hosts world-leading expertise in data curation and infrastructure capabilities for longitudinal population cohorts used for health-related research. We deploy this expertise on locally led cohorts that offer unique platforms and datasets to answer a broad range of health-related questions.
    • The Population Health Sciences MPhil is offered through the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge University.
    • 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge researchers run courses on polygenic scores, and tools to calculate them, through the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, that form part of our regional capacity building efforts.
    • We have access to world-leading resources, including for genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and for bioinformatics capabilities to develop databases and interoperable tools for health-related research at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute.Ìý
    • 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge researchers lead the global, multi-institutional, cross- disciplinary effort to develop environmentally sustainable computational science, the Green Algorithms Initiative. It has achieved national and international impact, exemplified by contributing to Europe’s Heidelberg Agreement on Environmental Sustainability in Research Funding. We have built tools for carbon footprint estimation, raised awareness, and driven policy change in scientific communities, academia, industry and government.Ìý
    • We have extended and supplemented the PGS Catalog (; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01937-x), the world’s largest findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) repository of polygenic scores, now encompassing over 5000 polygenic scores for more than 650 traits; it receives over 50,000 annual website visits and over 4 million user-generated data retrieval events every year. We have created the PGS Catalog Calculator. (), an open-source, scalable and portable pipeline to enhance ancestry-equitable PGS applications.Ìý
    • 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge plays a leading role in the COVID-IMPACT Consortium (). This consortium aims to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and a range of health conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, through analyses of de-identified, linked, nationally collated healthcare datasets across the four nations of the UK. It has produced highly impactful research, for example investigating the health effects of COVID-19 infection (), and of the cardiovascular safety of different COVID-19 vaccinations ().ÌýÌý

Programme Managers & Wider Regional Leads

Dr Carl Anderson
Dr Helen Parkinson Head of Molecular Archival Resources
Professor Michael Inouye Professor of Systems Genomics and Population Health, Director of Data Sciences (Clinical), Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Theme Lead.
Professor Adam Butterworth Professor of Molecular Epidemiology and Strategic Lead for Research and Enterprise, Department of Public Health and Primary Care
Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio Professor of Clinical Epidemiology. Director, NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Donor Health. Director, Health Data Science Research Centre, Human Technopole
51±¬ÁÏÍø logo on image of crowd
Richard Houghton 51±¬ÁÏÍø Cambridge Director of Operations and Strategy

Regional Partners

Wellcome Sanger Institute
University of Cambridge
EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute