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The company EncrypGen will launch a marketplace enabling individuals to sell access to their genomic and other health data tomorrow (November 6), according to a statement emailed to The Scientist. Of a spate of new companies aiming to use blockchain-based technology to give individuals control over which researchers can use their data, EncrypGen appears to be the first to facilitate sharing of genomic information.
“Until now, to buy data that is useful in research and development of new drug therapies and precision medical treatments meant paying whatever prices the big DNA testing companies demand, and without any compensation for people whose data is being sold,” says EncrypGen CEO David Koepsell in the statement, adding that the company’s platform “ensures control and payment for data owners, and creates a new resource for researchers and pharma.”
In an email to The Scientist, George Church, a geneticist at Harvard ...
