Privacy Challenges in the Health Sector through Emerging Technologies

Prof. Dr. Benedikt Brors, Div. Applied Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Title:
Omics Data and Privacy

Abstract:

Modern technologies in the life sciences are able to get almost complete information on the whole genome of an individual. This data holds big promises for understanding diseases such as cancer or rare hereditary disorders. At the same time, they may reveal private information, such as about future risks to develop diseases. The nature of large-scale genetic data prevents effective anonymization, which makes it necessary to establish special measures for their protection. The impact on research and data sharing in international projects will be discussed.

Bio:

Benedikt Brors heads the Division Applied Bioinformatics at the German Cancer Research Center. He has been involved into projects within the International Cancer Genome Consortium, the International Human Epigenome Consortium and the Pan-cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Project. His group has established pipelines to process whole-genome, whole-exome and RNA sequencing data from tumor samples and generate results that can be discussed in molecular tumor boards and are used for molecularly stratified treatments in precision medicine. His research interests comprise also bioinformatical methods in cancer epigenomics and single-cell analysis, in particular in the context of cancer immunology.