UK Biobank Scientific Conference, June 2022

On the 21st of June 2022 the BioGrad Biobanking team, based at Liverpool Science Park, participated in the UK Biobank Scientific Conference 2022. This conference was unfortunately an online only offering due to the ongoing train strikes and so the team tuned in from our Liverpool Laboratory rather than travelling to London.

The conference programme covered a wide range of topics including Polygenic Risk Score modelling using Biobanking data sets, discussion of open and supported access to the data of UK Biobank, Biobank applications for drug development and various others

On the conference Riaz Sohail, one of our Stem Cell Scientist says;

“The UK biobank scientific conference has really opened my eyes to the global scope of the work and the opportunities available to contribute to meaningful research. It was inspiring to hear about how UK Biobank provided a platform for effective collaboration between research establishments, with the established initiatives that reach out to countries with limited resources.”

Of particular interest was the session on unlocking the potential of genetics using Biobanks. One of our other scientists Brendan Lawlor commented;

“I found the talk by Prof. Sir Peter Donnelly on Polygenic Risk Scores fascinating. The work being conducted through the use of these data sets is inspiring and really shows the broad application of Biobanking as a method for scientific development.”

Riaz Sohail added;

“Listening to the discussion about the generated whole exome dataset of 50,000 individuals was of significant interest to me. I found a great appreciation for the project after learning that it had contributed to over 120 publications. One example included the identification of rare coding variants in diseases like obesity through genomic analytics. It is exciting to see the future of this work, knowing this transferable information potentially aiding in the future of personalised medicine.”

The conference overall was of huge benefit to our scientific team and was an excellent opportunity to get involved directly with those at the forefront of the science in our field. The chance to engage with others in the field through both the Q&A sessions and open discussion panel was an excellent opportunity that encouraged discussion and debate which is so core to the scientific community.

Please click here for more information on the conference.