Foundry120: Fixing fragmented research data with AI
Published: 7 July 2026
An innovative digital research platform developed by School of Infection & Immunity Clinical Senior Research Fellow Dr Shaun Chuah to help researchers connect data, reduce duplicated work and accelerate scientific discovery has been showcased in a new Microsoft Academic Research Exchange video.
An innovative digital research platform developed by School of Infection & Immunity (Sii) Clinical Senior Research Fellow Dr Shaun Chuah to help researchers connect data, reduce duplicated work and accelerate scientific discovery has been showcased in a new Microsoft Academic Research Exchange video.
Foundry120, created by Dr Chuah as part of the Gut Translational Research Group’s work within Sii, grew from practical challenges encountered while running MUSIC, a large multi-centre inflammatory bowel disease biomarker study.
Research data is often distributed across spreadsheets, databases, shared drives and sample storage systems. Foundry120 brings biological samples, pseudonymised clinical data, laboratory results, documents, and analysis outputs together within a governed environment.
Foundry's AI reasoning layer is built using Microsoft Foundry, its platform for developing and governing AI applications and agents, while the wider system is deployed on Microsoft Azure.
Together, these technologies help researchers explore connected information, design analyses and produce transparent, traceable outputs while keeping AI use within the University of Glasgow’s technical, governance and data-access requirements.
By making data and samples easier to find and connect, it reduces duplicated work, improves traceability and helps researchers investigate scientific questions more efficiently.
Currently, Foundry120 supports five clinical studies and more than 30,000 biological samples across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.
Although initially developed for inflammatory bowel disease research, the platform's underlying approach could be applied across other areas of medical and translational research.
Dr Chuah said: “Foundry120 grew from the practical difficulties of managing samples and data across large, multi-centre studies.
"I built the platform as part of our Gut Translational Research Group’s work to connect these resources and help researchers move more efficiently from scientific question to traceable answer.
"Our partnership with Microsoft has enabled us to combine Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure with the AI capabilities of Microsoft Foundry within the University’s governance and access controls.
"We hope the video will start conversations with other research groups facing similar challenges and lead to new scientific collaborations.”
Researchers interested in learning more or discussing potential collaboration can contact Dr Chuah at shaun.chuah@glasgow.ac.uk
First published: 7 July 2026