Prof Colin Palmer has pioneered population pharmacogenetic research in Scotland, with the establishment of the GoDARTS cohort in 1997 and the linkages to the electronic medical records, especially to the national prescribing records. His work played in a key role in the advances in GWAS discovery of genes for T2D, height and obesity, while paediatric asthma studies have provided novel pharmacogenetic discoveries, including the collaboration with Irwin McClean and the discovery of the Fillaggrin gene as a major determinant of eczema and asthma. He has published over 400 papers in top journals including papers in Science, Nature, Nature Genetics and the New England Medical Journal. These papers have been cited by over 45,000 other studies worldwide. Professor Palmer has been listed as one of the world's most influential minds, 2001-2018 by Thomson Reuters based in the citations of his work. In March 2015 he was elected as a fellow to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is currently the Director of the NIHR Unit for Global Diabetes Outcomes Research, a partnership with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation. He is also Director of the NHS Research Scotland national register (SHARE) which is the Scottish national platform for engagement and recruitment to clinical trials and spare blood bioresource.

He is Associate Dean for Research at the Medical School of the University of Dundee.