Prof José Mariano Gago talks to ecancer.tv about the movement towards multidisciplinary collaborations within biomedical research. Unlike the majority of European industries, there is willingness within the biomedical field for research involving numerous different stakeholders such as research institutions, clinicians, industry and patients. Prof Gago stresses the importance of patient contributions to research direction and explains how a greater level of patient involvement could benefit medical research. Prof Gago concludes by discussing the issues associated with the development of personalised medicine, the security of patients’ personal data and the importance of patient choice.