We are delighted to announce that Professor Cecilia Lindgren, St Anne’s Senior Research Fellow in Medical Sciences, has been appointed as the new Director of the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute.
The availability of biomedical information, also known as ‘big data’, is increasing rapidly. The analysis of this data provides an opportunity for transforming the scale and efficiency of large-scale clinical research and care.
The Big Data Institute (BDI) brings together researchers from different disciplines to focus on the analysis of large, complex, heterogeneous data sets for research into the causes, consequences, prevention and treatment of disease. Their work is invaluable in identifying the associations between lifestyle, genetic variants, infections, and health outcomes for people around the world.
Professor Lindgren’s work focuses on understanding the mechanisms involved in common complex traits, particularly obesity, by applying a range of genetic and genomic approaches to identify genetic risk variants and dissect their function. This knowledge will support therapeutic advances through development of new diagnostic tools and possible drug targets.
Professor Lindgren said ‘I am deeply honoured to be selected to lead the Big Data Institute at this time of exceptional opportunity for the UK’s biomedical researchers. Together with the excellent team of bright and committed staff at the BDI, I will work to further cement the BDI as a world-leading biomedical data institute.
‘At the BDI, we leverage large-scale biomedical data combined with cutting edge data science and quantitative analysis to advance our understanding and treatment of human disease and improve human health. I very much look forward to working with my colleagues in and around the BDI and Oxford, and with our many collaborators in the UK and across the globe.’
Professor Lindgren is currently Professor of Genomic Endocrinology & Metabolism in the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, and Group Head at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. She is also currently a Senior Group Leader in the Big Data Institute.
Find out more here.