On-chain storage of personal genome to enable programmable privacy: why, what, where, and how?

PI: Dr. Ruibang Luo, HKU
Co-I: Prof. T.W. Lam, HKU

Project Abstract: 

Personal genome promised to make medicine more precise and efficient but can only be realized by aggregating and analyzing people’s health and genomic data at scale. However, losing data sovereignty has become the primary reason hindering more personal genomes from being generated and studied. Moreover, new privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA now cover personal genome and require it to be protected with “privacy by technology design”. Blockchain technology is a promising candidate for the problem, but a few hurdles remain to be understood and overcome. In this project, we study on-chain storage of personal genome. At the intersection of privacy laws, genomics data, and blockchain technologies, we will study why on-chain storage is a must. Limited by the scarcity of on- chain space, we will study the balance between what personal genomics data to be stored and what genomics operations can be achieved. We will study the options of level-2 blockchain solutions that rollup to public chains but provide more cost-efficient storage. Eventually, we will provide a solution to facilitate genome-wide association study in clinical trial using on-chain personal genomes.