Benzinga | Dec 14, 2021 03:21PM EST

Gretel, Illumina Partner To Develop Synthetic Data For Genomic Research; Terms Not Disclosed

Today, Gretel.ai announced a collaboration with Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN), the global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, to create privacy-protected, synthetic genomic data that can be accessed by medical researchers anywhere. This announcement includes the release of a successful study the partnership conducted, which proves the viability of significant new use cases for synthetic data in genomics and related fields including medical diagnosis, biotechnology, forensic biology, virology, and biological systematics. Beyond healthcare and life sciences, synthetic data has already proven effective in privacy-related use cases in other industries, such as finance and gaming, to help augment small data collections and balance biased datasets.

This strategic partnership will provide healthcare and life science practitioners access to highly statistically accurate, artificial versions of complex genomic datasets that align with GDPR, CCPA, and other major privacy laws. By using synthetic data, researchers can gain access to datasets immediately and avoid lengthy approval processes by institutional review boards (IRBs) that can take anywhere from 6 months to a year today. "We're thrilled to show what the highest quality synthetic data available can enable when combined with the groundbreaking genomic work of Illumina's team," said Ali Golshan, co-founder and CEO of Gretel.

This privacy-preserving method of sharing sensitive data will also allow a much more accelerated and collaborative approach to next-generation DNA sequencing analysis -- leading to the discovery of new drugs, insights into genetic disorders, and disease detection and treatments, which could be used for variants of COVID-19, for example. "This work will inspire new medical discoveries and breakthroughs, and has the potential to help save millions of lives as well as improve the quality of life for generations to come," said Alex Watson, co-founder and lead Gretel researcher on the partnership study.

You can find more details about the partnership and read the study here.

To get started with Gretel's synthetic data tools you can sign up here.