Toronto, Ontario — Today, a Canadian consortium, including Cyclica inc., (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech that is unlocking the protein universe to discover the medicines of tomorrow, is announcing the launch of a new project to expand the development of a software platform to enable federated, AI-powered insights across networks of genomics and health data. The Canadian Platform for Genomics & Precision Health (CP4GPH) is a $14.5M initiative co-funded by Digital that brings together domain experts with a shared vision to deliver better outcomes for Canadians by making it easier to connect and analyze exponentially growing volumes of distributed genomics and health data. The project builds upon the multi-award-winning software platform developed by its partners as part of previous collaborations.
In order to make insights that will transform care, scientists and decision makers need data. These datasets are currently siloed between many different institutional, regional, and national systems, making it impossible to leverage their collective power to make discoveries. The traditional approach of centralized “data sharing” is not suitable because uploading copies of large and sensitive information to one datacenter is not fast, efficient, scalable, secure, or compliant, and does not empower individuals and organizations to retain control of their data, measure impact, or enforce attribution.
The solution being developed by the CP4GPH directly addresses this problem. It enables privacy-preserving “federated insights”, where questions can be answered by analyzing distributed datasets without moving them. All data remains in place and so, instead of “moving data to the question” this new approach “moves questions to the data”. This is faster, more efficient, secure, scalable, and compliant, while allowing individuals and organizations to retain control of their data, measure impact, and automate attribution.
With this new platform, health data stewards can easily connect datasets into distributed networks and grant permissions for data consumers to be able to derive privacy-preserving federated insights across them. The system is being built in compliance with FAIR principles, open standards (e.g. GA4GH, FHIR), international privacy regulations (e.g. PIPEDA, HIPAA, GDPR), and is deployable within commercial cloud and HPC environments. The platform will be used to create and grow provincial, national, and international networks in neuroscience, oncology, rare disease, infectious disease, health care, and agriculture.
“We believe that the future of genomics and precision health can only be achieved through collaborative innovation and discovery. With federated insights, we can finally break down the barriers that have traditionally prevented hospitals, researchers, clinical labs, governments, pharma, and other innovators from working together to unlock the full potential of data in a secure and privacy-preserving way,” said Dr. Marc Fiume, CEO at DNAstack. “We are excited to be at the forefront of this transformation, and to be working with incredible partners to push the boundaries of what is possible.”
“Cyclica is honoured to partner with this consortium of Canadian innovators to drive the power of artificial intelligence upstream. The world is seeing exponential growth in the quantity of genomics and health data. With this project, our goal is to ensure datasets will be shared and analyzed more securely and efficiently. By improving access to better data, we can build leading-edge technologies, and forge a new path of discovery in the genomics and precision health ecosystem.” Naheed Kurji, CEO, President and Co-Founder, Cyclica.
This initiative combines world-leading expertise in software engineering, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, genome sequencing, research, patient advocacy, health care, public health, diagnostics, therapeutics, standards, and policy. Project partners include Autism Speaks, Autism Speaks Canada, Cyclica, DNAstack, Genome Canada, Hoffmann-La Roche Limited (Roche Canada), Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, integrate.ai, McGill University, PacBio, the Public Health Agency of Canada, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and University of New Brunswick, advised by Genome Alberta, Genome Atlantic, Genome BC, Genome Prairie, Génome Québec, Global Alliance for Genomics & Health (GA4GH), and Ontario Genomics.
For more information, contact info@dnastack.com.
About Cyclica
As a neo-biotech, Cyclica is efficiently advancing an industry-leading, robust and sustainable drug discovery portfolio focused on CNS, oncology, and auto-immune diseases. Cyclica has built the only generalizable platform across the entire proteome, expanding the target space for low-data targets, including AlphaFold2 structures, PPIs, and mutant oncogenic targets. Cyclica has brought together a diverse and experienced team of biologists, chemists, computer scientists, and business professionals who are collectively passionate about changing the drug discovery paradigm. By exploring the unexplored, and drugging the undrugged, Cyclica strives to impact patient health like never before. For more information about our company, please visit: cyclicarx.com.
About Digital
Ahead of the curve starts here. Digital grows Canadian businesses and anchor enterprises through the development, adoption and deployment of Canadian-made digital technologies that keep Canadians healthy, address climate change and drive economic productivity. Through a powerful model that combines cross-sector collaboration, IP creation, digital talent development and results-based co-investment, we unlock the potential of Canadian industry to lead and succeed in the digital world. For more information, visit: https://www.digitalsupercluster.ca/