PRIVACY-ENHANCING TECHNOLOGIES FOR MEDICAL TESTS USING GENOMIC DATA

摘要

In this invention, we propose privacy-enhancing technologies for medical tests and personalized medicine methods, which utilize patients' genomic data. Assuming the whole genome sequencing is done by a certified institution, we propose to store patients' genomic data encrypted by a patient's public keys at a Storage and Processing Unit (SPU). A part of the corresponding private key is also stored on the SPU. At the time of the test by a Medical Unit (MU), the patient provides the second part of the private key to the MU. A test with its associated markers is determined by the MU and sent to the SPU. The test is carried out on the encrypted values thanks to homomorphic operation and returned back to the MU. The latter uses the second part of the private key to access the result.

主权项

1. A method to process genomic data comprising the steps of:
associating, by a Certified Institution, a patient identification for a given patient; generating, the Certified Institution, a pair of asymmetric keys related to said patient comprising a private and a public key; analyzing, by the Certified Institution, an output of a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) sequencer and preparing an aligned genomic data for said patient comprising approved variants, said approved variants being approved by medical authorities, each approved variant representing a position in the genome and a value representing a nucleotide that varies between individuals; extracting, by the Certified Institution, real and potential variants from said approved variants, said real and potential variants having each a position, said real variants being a subset of the approved variants and being different for each human being, said potential variants being the remaining part of the approved variants; encrypting, by the Certified Institution, the value of each real variant with the public key of the patient; storing, by the Certified Institution, the encrypted values with their respective positions and the patient identification into a Storage and Processing Unit; dividing, by the Certified Institution, the private key into at least a first and a second part; storing, by the Certified Institution, the second part of the private key in the Certified Institution or in a patient device; transmitting, by the Certified Institution, the first part of the private key to the Storage and Processing Unit; selecting by a medical unit a personalized clinical test to be carried out and related genetic markers, each marker having a position and a contribution; determining, by the medical unit, the contribution of each marker according to the personalized clinical test selected, receiving, by the Storage and Processing Unit from the medical unit, genetic markers related to the personalized clinical test, the respective contributions of the related genetic markers and the patient identification of the patient; retrieving by the Storage and Processing Unit the encrypted values for said patient matching the position of the related genetic markers; executing by the Storage and Processing Unit a genetic test by using the retrieved values, and the contribution of the respective genetic markers thanks to homomorphic operations; partially decrypting by the Storage and Processing Unit the result of the genetic test using the first part of the private key; sending by the Storage and Processing Unit the decrypted result to the medical unit; whereby the medical unit can use the second part of the private key to obtain the result of the performed personalized clinical test.