On site we have recently welcomed the GenX founders Stas Nikolskiy (CEO), Kir Petrenko (CFO), Pavel Nikonorov (CTO), Ruslan Vakhitov (COO) and Vitalina Chamberlain-Evans (CSO). With a background spanning from software development to genomic immunology, the team founded GenX in 2017 and were part of the BioCity Accelerator in 2018. In November last year, they joined the BioData Innovation Centre and are hoping to contribute and share their experience in the adoption of Confidential Computing technologies with Campus. 

The company offers two key services. The first one is a platform for secure data collaboration based on Confidential computing. The aim of the platform is to connect genetic testing companies who work directly with consumers allowing them to leverage each other’s company’s data in a peer to peer way, while preserving privacy and regulatory compliance. 

Confidential Computing is an enabling technology for privacy-preserving multi-party computing. It is based on the protection of data-in-use by performing computation in a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). Fundamental to the TEE philosophy is that multi-party data can be analysed and exchanged while preserving confidentiality and integrity of both data and code. The ability to act together in a peer-to-peer network opens up new business models for  data owners and algorithm developers.

The second is open source software.  Inspired by the idea of open and user-led innovation, GenX develops open source solutions that allow genomic testing companies to establish services such as ancestry prediction and DNA relatives matching with minimal R&D expenses. In this line, they have developed the first open-source end-to-end solution for relatedness detection in genomic data, the Genomic Relatedness Detection Pipeline (GRAPE) which is now integrated into Atlas Biomed, a personal genomics company operating in the UK and Japan (Further info: Medium, Preprint, GitHub).

The company is also currently developing an open-source algorithm for determining ancestry using modern machine learning approaches and an open-source mega-gwas algorithm to identify genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. They seek to collaborate with various research teams and institutions within Campus  in order to advance these algorithms. Moreover, GenX can provide its customers the ability to work with an integrated network of genomic testing companies’ re-contactable databases with genetic and phenotype data.

Credentials:

GenX is a General Member of the Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC) and an early adopter of the Confidential Computing technology in genomics.

As a member of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), GenX’s platform applies GA4GH policies, standards and frameworks.

GenX completed the BioCity Business Accelerator Programme and was supported with a two-year grant by Microsoft.

To find out more, please visit https://genx.network/