# A decentralized macro and micro gene-by-environment interaction analysis of substance use behavior and its brain biomarkers

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $149,834

## Abstract

Abstract
Wide-spread data sharing has started to permeate the brain imaging community from funders to
researchers. However, in recent years there have also been some concerns raised regarding
ethical issues related to privacy and data ownership among others. In the parent award we are
leveraging and extending a privacy preserving decentralized data sharing platform called
COINSTAC to perform a study of gene-by-environmental effects by pooling together data from
across the world, some of which is unable to be openly shared. In this supplement we will study
various bioethical issues related to different data sharing strategies. This will include calculating
risk scores from existing data to evaluate the effectiveness of machine learning to potentially
reidentify from similar or different data types, a detailed survey of various policy makers and
stakeholders including researchers, federal employees, IRB members, and more, and finally the
development of a forward looking white paper addressing both privacy, policy, and regulatory
aspects which attempts to frame the various aspects that arise in the contact of the spectrum of
data sharing approaches including fully open, ‘trust’ based via data usage agreements, privacy
preserving via tools like COINSTAC, and more. The outcomes of this supplement will provide a
useful guide for the field going forward and also provide initial data necessary to develop a larger
scale project on these topics going forward.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10131528
- **Project number:** 3R01DA049238-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** VINCE D CALHOUN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $149,834
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-09-15 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10131528

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10131528, A decentralized macro and micro gene-by-environment interaction analysis of substance use behavior and its brain biomarkers (3R01DA049238-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10131528. Licensed CC0.

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