Here are four things to know about the study.
1. In the past, researchers have run into several issues when attempting to ensure participants’ privacy. For some studies, participants provide a subset, rather than all, of their genomic data to maintain a level of privacy — however, researchers can often predict the remaining genomes based on the surrounding DNA.
“This is the dilemma at the heart of precision medicine: It requires people to give up some of their privacy in service of the greater scientific good,” according to Wired. “To completely eliminate the risk of outing an individual based on their DNA records, you’d have to strip it of the same identifying details that make it scientifically useful.”
2. In recent years, computer scientists and mathematicians have attempted to develop methods to encrypt genomic data, to keep it secure during analysis without the need to strip it of its value. The National Institutes of Health, for example, founded Integrating Data for Analysis, Anonymization and Sharing, part of the National Center for Biomedical Computing, in 2010 to preserve privacy in genomics research.
3. The research team at Stanford — which comprised computer science, electrical engineering, developmental biology and genetics researchers — published a study in Science Aug. 18 detailing a potential solution. With their “genome cloaking” method, the researchers converted each genetic variation into a series of linear values, enabling them to conduct analysis that identified genetic mutations in rare disease patients while ensuring 97 percent of each person’s genetic data was hidden, Wired reports.
4. This type of research is particularly important as genetic databases are more frequently shared, according to Wired. The NIH, for example, allows researchers to download and store genomic data in private and commercial cloud environments. These scientists are responsible for securing the data — not the cloud services providers. “Cloud providers can get hacked, or subpoenaed by law enforcement, something researchers have no control over,” according to Wired. “That is, unless there’s a viable encryption for data stored in the cloud.”
More articles on data analytics & precision medicine:
Novartis builds study on Apple ResearchKit to investigate multiple sclerosis
NIH provides up to $14.8M for pediatric data resource center
IBM, JDRF use AI to research Type 1 diabetes onset in children
