Open Source Approach to DNA Privacy

American Friends of Tel Aviv University: Open Source DNA: "In the chilling science fiction movie Gattaca, Ethan Hawke stars as a man with 'inferior genes' who assumes another's genetic identity to escape a dead-end future. The 1997 film illustrates the very real fear swirling around today's genome research — fear that private genetic information could be used negatively against us."

"Working with colleagues at the University of California in Berkeley, Dr. Halperin devised a mathematical formula that can be used to protect genetic privacy while giving researchers much of the raw data they need to do pioneering medical research. Reported in this month's issue of Nature Genetics, the tool could keep millions of research dollars-worth of DNA information available to scientists."