A £5 million project will see genetic data of more than 50,000 volunteers made available to researchers, it has been announced.
The 50,000 genomes would fill 500 billion pages of printouts and will require an "extraordinary" amount of data storage space, funders say.
The project is an extension of the UK Biobank which has recruited some 500,000 people to share their health information for research purposes.
The sequencing of the genomes is being undertaken at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge and is due to be completed next year.
The new databank will also include millions of MRI images of volunteers. So far 35,000 volunteers have been scanned.
Medical Research Council chief executive Professor Fiona Watt said: “The study of this genomic data will be of immense value to researchers, informing future methods of targeting and preventing a wide range of diseases.
“This investment illustrates how the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is driving improvements in our use of data and catalysing improved diagnoses and treatments for patients.”
Dr Mark Effingham, chief operating officer of the UK Biobank, said: "This will provide new leads and insights for research into a very wide range of common and complex diseases.
“The scale is mind-boggling. The UK is leading health scientists into a new era of research, and these data are lighting our way.”
He added: “Technology allows us to do lots of things we couldn’t have considered ten years ago. But we’re also banging on its door, pushing the upper limits of what is possible and creating a demand that’s driving IT innovation.”
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