Shivom, the blockchain genomics platform that is powering personalized healthcare, has partnered with Lifebit, the AI-powered DNA-analysis firm, to give users unprecedented reporting capabilities for DNA data analysis.
The partnership will mean that immediate Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) analysis is possible, with no specialist knowledge or in-house data scientist required. It also means that users can access a library of pipelines (ready-built software that is used for analysis) and an AI-powered toolkit for analyzing the data in a way that is far more scalable than other solutions.
Another aspect that makes the Shivom platform superior to other genomics platforms is that it will give pharmaceutical organizations and life science users the ability to access real-time analysis whenever they need it with no waiting time, no application process for accessing the data and deadlines or cut off dates that restrict their access.
“Through this partnership with Lifebit, we are providing enterprise users with the tools they need to find the right patients for their clinical trials more easily and more accurately than is possible through other solutions. Not only that, it brings AI into GWAS analysis in a way that hasn’t been seen before,” said Dr. Axel Schumacher, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific of Shivom.
The use of genomics platforms to improve rare disease treatment has increased in recent months, with 23andMe partnering with GlaxoSmithKline to develop drugs for Parkinson’s. However, the Shivom Lifebit partnership demonstrates a major leap forward in this area because it adds AI and Machine Learning capabilities to the identification of potential patients.
To do this, users will be able to access a library of pipelines within the Shivom platform. These include preset Shivom pipelines, those created through open source software and any that an enterprise chooses to develop using Github and DOCKER services.
“Our partnership with Shivom will allow us to combine unique datasets with a level of analysis automation and insight generation that has never been seen before on a genomics platform,” said Dr. Maria Chatzou, co-founder and CEO of Lifebit. “In this way, scientists and doctors will be able to get all the benefits of this rich database without the need to rely on a data scientist for help. On the other hand, still ensuring that the individuals that have provided data to Shivom are given a level of security and control only a state-of-art blockchain technology can offer.”
The partnership with Lifebit comes with the Shivom platform having already been released in alpha. The full launch of the platform is expected in Q1 2019.
