Tuesday, July 1, 2025 7/1/2025

SAFEGENOMES: Strong privacy Assurance For Effective GENOME Sharing

Award Number: R00HG010493
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/14/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2024

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SAFEGENOMES: Strong privacy Assurance For Effective GENOME Sharing - Project Summary Genomic data are vital for advancing medical research and achieving breakthroughs. However, disclosure of genomic data has serious privacy implications that can lead to a loss of trust from data contributors and restricting researchers’ access to data. To facilitate data-driven genomic research, it is crucial to address the privacy risks in data sharing and to develop privacy-preserving solutions to protect study participants. This project will study the privacy risks in realistic attack models and develop privacy methods that balance individual privacy and the utility of shared data. Overall, the proposed solutions will enable institutions to share high utility data while providing strong privacy assurance to data contributors, facilitating data collection and improving data usability. In the first aim, a privacy-preserving data publication framework will be developed to “safely anonymize” genomic data and optimize the released data toward application needs. The framework will protect individuals from re- identification and also prevent inference attacks that may be conducted using publicly available phenotypes (e.g., eye/hair color). In the second aim, customizable privacy solutions will be developed against realistic adversarial models when data statistics are released. Building on recent privacy models, the proposed solutions will account for the adversary's external knowledge and customizable sensitive information to effectively strike a balance between privacy and utility, improving data usability compared to standard differential privacy models. This project will advance current solutions for genomic data anonymization and improve the usability of differential privacy and its variants, with the goal of facilitating highly usable and privacy-preserving data sharing. This work will widen the access to genomic data, promote transparency, and facilitate reproducibility for genomic applications. This project is in line with the mission of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), as the proposed techniques enhance data sharing and promote collaborative genomic research. The applicant’s career goal is to become an independent investigator with a primary appointment in a biomedical informatics program, with a focus on genome privacy technologies, at a major US research university. His long- term objective is to develop new privacy-preserving technologies for data sharing and data analytics, in order to facilitate collaborative research efforts in genomics and precision medicine. The applicant proposes a carefully designed career development plan, which includes a variety of training activities to complement his computer science skills with additional biomedical knowledge and smooth his transition into an independent researcher. The UCSD Health Department of Biomedical Informatics will serve as an exceptional platform for his career development, given the experience of several faculty in privacy technologies, computational biology, genomic medicine, and close collaboration with other institutions worldwide.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $247,282 )
2024	2024	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	000	5	2/2/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$222,555
2024	2024	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	001	5	7/26/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$24,727
														Subtotal = $247,282

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $248,021 )
2023	2023	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	001	4	3/1/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$24,802
2023	2023	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	000	4	12/23/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$223,219
														Subtotal = $248,021

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $306,246 )
2022	2022	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	000	3	1/14/2022	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$224,099
2022	2022	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	001	3	3/18/2022	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$57,246
2022	2022	VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER	1161 21ST AVE S STE D3300 MCN	NASHVILLE	TN	37232	DAVIDSON	USA	Human Genome Research	002	3	4/27/2022	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$24,901
														Subtotal = $306,246

Grand Total All Awards = $801,549

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SAFEGENOMES: Strong privacy Assurance For Effective GENOME Sharing

Award Number: R00HG010493

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/14/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2024

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