# Tools to Address the Challenges of Preserving Privacy in Sharing and Analysis of Biomedical Data

> **NIH NIH R35** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $457,381

## Abstract

Project Summary
Understanding a single disease or condition requires large-scale mining of genetic, epigenetic,
environmental, and clinical observations from large amounts of human data. Widespread and
easy access to such data is imperative to decipher the vast trove of data that has been collected
at the individual and population level. However, there is a direct conflict between protecting the
privacy of patients and research participants and sharing genetic, epigenetic, and clinical data for
biomedical advances. This conflict is partly due to a disconnect between the fields that generate
and analyze personal biological data and the fields that establish theories and implementations
for data privacy and security. The goal of this project is two-fold: 1) to quantify private information
leakages from various types of human-derived biological data in a systematic manner to inform
data-sharing efforts and 2) to develop privacy-enhancing analysis software for data at various
molecular levels (genomics, transcriptomics, phenotype data) at scale. We will create an evolving
and modular tool suite to both quantify and preserve privacy; this suite will have the ability to be
adopted to new data modalities and analysis needs as they arise. The proposed tools will help
prevent future catastrophic privacy leaks, which may result in a loss of access to all medically
actionable data; democratize data access for all researchers; and create trust between patients
and researchers, thus increasing participation in studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10878909
- **Project number:** 5R35GM147004-03
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Gamze Gursoy
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $457,381
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-23 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10878909

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10878909, Tools to Address the Challenges of Preserving Privacy in Sharing and Analysis of Biomedical Data (5R35GM147004-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10878909. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*