BLOCKCHAIN BASED DATA SHARING PLATFORM FOR BIOINFORMATICS FIELD

Abstract

Recently, panomics studies attempt to identify new and actionable biomarkers by combining -omics data with other data types. In this context, there is a need to develop secure platforms that take into account ethical aspects and solve privacy and ownership issues as well as data sharing for an accurate analysis of -omics data. These days, blockchain technology has picked up significant attention in genomics, since it offers a new solution to these problems from a different perspective. In this thesis, we proposed a hybrid platform called GenShare, which is based on blockchain, homomorphic encryption and intel software guard extension (SGX) to provide efficient genomic data sharing, to perform statistical analysis and other similar processes on genomic data. While the proposed model solves security-privacy issues using homomorphic encryption and SGX, it solves other issues by using a combination of Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum networks. In this study, Hyperledger Fabric network, which is the first phase of the GenShare model, setup is made and the performance of the network is tested with a different number of workloads. At the end of our performance evaluations, we concluded that the GenShare model has a potential to speed up the process of collecting and sharing data and it offers an efficient platform for the participants.