‘GENOME CLOAKING’ COULD PROTECT PRIVACY AND PREVENT DISCRIMINATION
There’s now a way to study a person’s DNA without compromising the privacy of their entire genetic makeup, which can reveal sensitive information about health, personality, and family history and lead to genomic discrimination.
A new ‘genome cloaking’ technique was developed by biologists, computer scientists, and cryptographers at Stanford to encrypt DNA and allow for nearcomplete privacy when studying it. For the first time, researchers can scour the complete human genome for disease-associated genes without revealing genetic information that isn’t directly related to the inquiry.’we now have the tools in hand to make certain that genomic discrimination doesn’t happen,’ said Gill Bejerano an associate professor of developmental biology, of pediatrics and of computer science, who led the research.
In the study, the researchers were able to accomplish multiple tasks while keeping 97 percent or more of the participants’ unique genetic information completely hidden from anyone other than the individuals themselves.
First, they were able identify gene mutations in groups of patients with four rare diseases.
They were also able to pinpoint the likely culprit of a genetic disease in a baby by comparing his DNA with that of his parents.
In another experiment, they were able to determine which out of hundreds of patients at two individual medical centres with similar symptoms also shared gene mutations. To do this, the team had each participant encrypt their genome using an algorithm and uploaded it into the cloud.
Using a secure, multi-party computation to analyze it, the researchers were about to reveal only the genetic information important to the investigation within only a matter of seconds or minutes. For now, the process only works for diseases caused by single gene mutations, but the researchers hope to extend it to include diseases caused by combinations of multiple genetic variants or to handle tens of thousands of sequences such as those found in genome-wide association studies.
They also hope to implement the ‘genome cloaking’ technique widely to ease patients’ privacy concerns, combat genetic discrimination and allow for better research.’often people who have diseases, or those who know that a particular genetic disease runs in their
family, are the most reluctant to share their genomic information because they know it could potentially be used against them in some way,’ said Bejerano.
The importance of encryption of personal data has been pushed in recent years, and there is no data more personal than DNA. DAILY MAIL, 24 August, 2017