bioETH-Beacon: A Confidential On-Chain Genomic Beacon with Encrypted Counts, Filters, and Bounded Noise over a Fully Homomorphic EVM
Letting researchers query genetic databases without revealing what they're looking for
Researchers built a system that lets hospitals and scientists search shared genetic databases while keeping both the queries and the data encrypted—so no one can see what variant someone is searching for or what raw genetic information hospitals hold. The system runs on blockchain-like infrastructure using advanced encryption that performs calculations directly on coded data, eliminating the need for a trusted middleman to decrypt information during the search process.
Genomic databases are crucial for medical research, but current systems force hospitals to either trust a single organization with plaintext genetic data or reveal to each institution what researchers are searching for—creating privacy breaches and membership-inference risks where repeated searches could expose whether specific patients are in a database. This prototype removes that tradeoff, letting hospitals contribute genetic data to research networks without exposing raw information or surveillance-level query logs.