GHGA Contributes to GDI’s Secure Cross-Border Genomic Analysis Demonstrator
- 30 Sep 2025
- Luiz Gadelha
As Germany’s national node in the European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project, we have taken part in a successful proof-of-concept. The demonstration showed how large-scale genomic research can be carried out securely across Europe.
In this setup, a federated genome-wide association study (GWAS) was executed across seven national nodes (Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain) using synthetic data.The Czech node coordinated the efforts. GHGA performed the analysis locally within Germany, ensuring that sensitive genomic data never left national borders. Instead, only non-personal, aggregated results were combined centrally in the Czech Republic to generate Europe-wide indicators.
The technical setup relied on a standards-based architecture, including Funnel (a GA4GH TES API implementation), Snakemake, Docker, MinIO, and SeqUIa. This approach highlights the potential of federated analysis: enabling collaboration and innovation while maintaining data security and sovereignty. This creates the foundation for federated learning and AI-driven healthcare.
The demonstrator marks an important step toward a secure and interoperable European data infrastructure for genomics.