Dr Philip Quinlan has developed a career in data systems for biomedical research and currently is the Head of the Digital Research Service at the University of Nottingham. The digital research service is an exciting core service supporting researchers from across the University and goes far beyond biomedical research and includes building data pipelines to support the dairy herd on the University farm to helping to establish the UKs best HGV from data collected in telematrix boxes. All the work has a data challenge and stems from the Advanced Data Analysis Centre (ADAC). A flagship project of ADAC is to provide the leadership of the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (BBMRI.uk) and Dr Quinlan is the Director. The main output from this project is the development of the UKs first Tissue Directory that is cross-disease. Dr Quinlan has become the Director of the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre having worked on database and operational systems to support Biobanks since his graduation in Applied Computing in 2004.