Oxford creates a hub for 21st-century biomedical research
Right at the heart of the University’s Old Road campus in Headington a new building is rising: the Big Data Institute (BDI), phase two of the Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery. Generously supported by Sir Ka-shing Li and his foundation, the BDI has also received funding from the Robertson Foundation.
‘Big data’ research involves a matrix of disciplines collaborating in order to tease out new discoveries from vast and complex datasets. Reflecting this approach, the BDI is currently led by Professor of Statistical Genetics Gilean McVean as Acting Director, while Deputy Director Martin Landray is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology.
While the building takes shape, the BDI team has been establishing links across Oxford and globally. They have already brought together researchers mapping the incidence and prevalence of malaria for the World Health Organisation with those working on the genomics of the parasite.
What is special about data in such large quantities?
Over the last ten years, what’s transformed these areas of biomedical research is the understanding that, to make real progress on a problem, you don’t do it by yourself.
Professor Gilean McVean
‘As you add numbers, you add clarity to the picture,’ explains Professor Landray. If you plot a graph of blood pressure against risk of stroke for different age groups using data from 5,000 patients, the data points are scattered and show no obvious trends. With 50,000 patients, patterns begin to be observable but if you have access to 500,000 data points the trends become crystal clear.
Why is Oxford a perfect location for the BDI?
Oxford’s biomedical campus extends to two large hospitals as well as world-class research institutes in areas such as genomics, public health, rheumatology, vaccine design and high-throughput cellular screening. The BDI will form a strategic hub, linking the academic and clinical worlds and supporting national and international collaborations.
It will have access to unparalleled data resources. For 10 years the University has led on the data infrastructure behind the UK Biobank project, assembling information from 500,000 NHS patient volunteers, from basic blood pressure and weight through to brain and cardiac imaging. In addition it can draw on 50 years of hospitalisation and death records from 4 million people living around Oxfordshire.
Professor Landray points out that ‘the challenge in research is that it can be a very long lead time between having an idea, collecting the data and then being able to actually do the study. If you have a good question about dementia, cardiac disease, cancer or osteoarthritis, there will be thousands or tens of thousands of cases with all the data you would want already assembled.’
The building
Both professors have had input into the design of the BDI. Professor Landray explains ‘it needs to be a building that fosters interaction and engagement,’ while Professor McVean notes that ‘the most valuable scientific encounters are often the chance ones that you have in the café or over lunch.’ They were determined to create a building which maximises those chance encounters, so there will be public space outside and a pleasant, airy atrium with a café – and good coffee!
The future
For training the next generation of researchers in this 21st-century discipline, the creation of a graduate programme in biomedical big data is firmly on Professor McVean’s wish list. Professor Landray stresses that, for the BDI to realise its full potential, gaining the understanding and trust of patients and volunteers will be vital. Individuals willing to share medical data, in accordance with well-communicated and ethical processes, can play a small but vital part in the ongoing mission to learn more about human disease.
Support Medical Sciences at Oxford