GA4GH News

GA4GH GDPR Brief: data protection implications of publishing metadata to enable discovery

17 June

As with any human data, controllers must assess the identifiability of metadata before proceeding with processing or publication. In doing so they must consider all means reasonably likely to be used by any person to re-identify the individual and objective factors including the costs and time required, available technology at the time of the processing, and technological developments.

GA4GH Announcements

🌐 Register for a GA4GH 101 Webinar on 27 June, 2022 @ 22:00 UTC! Discover how GA4GH works, key areas of strategic focus, and ways to get involved!

🖥️ Attending ISMB 2022? Sign up now for a tutorial on implementing GA4GH standards in your local environment using the GA4GH Starter Kit, and a hackathon to collaboratively develop useful features for the Variation Representation Specification.

GA4GH Mentions

Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data

June 15 • The UK Government, UK

"NIHR, UKRI, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Office for Life Sciences have provided funding for some of our most successful programmes. This includes...the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), and we will continue to collaborate with these organisations and more widely."

"Federated analysis" helps fill genetic risk knowledge gap on BRCA genes

14 June • Bio-IT World, USA

"Cline, with Amanda Spurdle, a cancer epidemiologist at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (near Brisbane, Australia), seven years ago co-founded the BRCA Exchange. A driver project of the GA4GH, the BRCA Exchange is endeavouring to identify the variants that cause harm, format the data so everyone can understand it, and share this crucial information with patients and clinicians, Cline explains."

Breast cancer gene research helping avoid unnecessary preventive mastectomies

8 June • BodyLab podcast, Australia

"This work fits under the umbrella of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health...it's an international, global organisation, which is all about data sharing — trying to make sure people can share data in a safe, ethical way for the betterment of health."

Academic Papers

Jacobsen, J.O.B., Baudis, M., Baynam, G.S. et al. The GA4GH Phenopacket schema defines a computable representation of clinical data. Nature Biotechnology 40, 817–820 (2022).

Genomics and Health News

Facebook is receiving sensitive medical information from hospital websites

16 June • The Markup, USA

More than 1,000 genes linked to development of severe Covid-19

16 June • Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, USA

Nadeem Sarwar: drug discovery: why do pharma want my data?

16 June • The G Word, UK

Tumour structural genetic signatures offer blueprint for cancer precision medicine

15 June • Fierce Biotech, USA

Asked and answered: All of Us and what it means to all of you

15 June • Inside Precision Medicine, USA

S'pore dedicates $25m to liver cancer research to find targeted treatments

13 June •The Straits Times • Singapore

"No large negative effects from drinking coffee while pregnant": research

13 June • The Age, Australia

New health data strategy announced for England

13 June • Healthcare IT News, International

Different forms of autism have opposite problems with brain precursor cells

13 June • The Scientist, USA

Nigeria: molecular research could help Nigeria solve a host of health problems

13 June • AllAfrica, International

Genetic risk scores could predict disease in Africans

8 June • H3Africa, South Africa

GA4GH Events

GA4GH 101 Webinar

Know someone who could be a great addition to the GA4GH community or benefit from its resources? Point them to our upcoming GA4GH 101 webinar on 27 June 2022 @ 22:00 UTC! Discover how GA4GH works, key areas of strategic focus, and opportunities to get involved. Plenty of time will be saved at the end for a Q&A session with the GA4GH Secretariat team.

GA4GH Hackathon hosted by FASP

The Federated Analysis Systems Project (FASP) group is hosting a two-week-long virtual event in July that focuses on API improvements of existing GA4GH specifications, and implementing those specifications in new environments. Sign up and see potential topics here.

Are you attending ISMB 2022? Sign up for two sessions sponsored by GA4GH: the GA4GH VRS Hackathon will discuss reducing barriers to the adoption of VRS as an emergent standard, and the GA4GH Starter Kit workshop aims to introduce federated genomics using the Starter Kit and real-world data platforms.

GA4GH 10th Plenary Meeting

GA4GH 10th Plenary will take place 22 to 23 September 2022 at CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, Spain, and will be live-streamed. Registration details to follow soon. View the event website here.

Other Upcoming Events