Zetta has been reflecting on our time at Amazon Web Services (AWS)‘s GenResCon, which brought together an exceptional group of leaders from across the UK genomics and health data landscape. Hearing from speakers spanning UK Biobank, Genomics England, National Disease Registration Service, NIHR BioResource, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), Our Future Health UK, the NHS, and industry made it clear just how much momentum there is across the entire ecosystem.
A few themes really stood out to us:
The UK’s data assets are becoming globally unmatched
Talks from Prof Sir Rory Collins, Prof Nathalie Kingston, Dr Steven Hardy, and others highlighted the scale and maturity of resources like UK Biobank, NIHR BioResource and the NDRS. The consistency in their message was obvious: population-scale, multi-modal datasets are now central to discovery, prevention, and clinical research.
Industry is fully leaning in
Leaders, including Prof Slavé Petrovski, Prof Nadeem Sarwar, and Prof Sir Peter Donnelly, shared how deeply integrated these datasets have become in R&D decision-making. Whether in rare disease, chronic disease, or dementia, data-driven target discovery and risk prediction are clearly accelerating drug development.
Clinical transformation is gathering pace
Updates from Dr David Bick, Clive Morgan, Dr Sian Morgan, and Mark Avery underscored how genomic medicine is reshaping diagnostic services, laboratory workflows, and health informatics across the NHS. Deborah Porter’s vision for the NHS 10-year genomics plan tied this all together – a future where genomic data is routinely used in care pathways and supported by a unified, real-time digital infrastructure.
What really resonated with us overall was the sense of growing alignment and shared purpose across organisations. Research, clinical services, infrastructure, and industry are pulling in the same direction – and that collective momentum is already starting to show real impact.
It’s a fascinating moment for genomics, and we’re looking forward to being a part of future developments as they unfold.
