DNAstack
Ottawa, Ontario — Today, a consortium led by DNAstack announced the launch of the Canadian Platform for AI in Health, a new $17.5M project to expand software for making AI-powered discoveries in genomics and healthcare. This groundbreaking collaboration — bringing together Autism Speaks, DNAstack, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), PacBio, and Valence with co-investment from DIGITAL — builds on sustained and coordinated investments to improve patient outcomes by establishing national and international AI infrastructure for genomics and health.
The Problem of Data Silos
AI is revolutionizing healthcare, reshaping our ability to prevent, diagnose, prognose, and treat conditions with unprecedented speed and accuracy. However, AI models need incredibly large and diverse datasets to train effectively. Despite healthcare generating an estimated 30% of the world’s data, these datasets are siloed — across thousands of different institutions, provinces, states, countries, clouds, devices, and databases. Breaking down these silos is essential to unleashing the power of AI to make healthcare better, more efficient, and more accessible for all.
Unleashing the Power of AI in Healthcare
This initiative builds on DNAstack’s award-winning Omics AI platform, unlocking the potential for AI in healthcare by enabling training and deployment across data silos. Unlike the traditional approach that involves copying and sending sensitive data to a centralized database, Omics AI follows a federated model that enables AI models to be trained and deployed across distributed datasets, without moving them—enhancing sovereignty, speed, security, privacy, and scalability. The platform adheres to open interoperability standards set by the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health and the Pan-Canadian AI for Health (AI4H) Guiding Principles.
“AI promises to revolutionize healthcare,” said Dr. Marc Fiume, CEO at DNAstack. “We are grateful to collaborate with such an incredible group of partners who share our vision to deliver AI infrastructure that enables widespread collaboration and faster discoveries while prioritizing privacy, security, sovereignty, and scalability. By making it easier and safer for AI to learn from our collective healthcare experiences, we stand to significantly improve diagnostics, treatments, and outcomes for patients and families.”
Accelerating Global Collaborative Research
Omics AI is already used by leading advocacy groups, research hospitals, sequencing facilities, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and international consortia. For instance, PacBio is using the system to power HiFi Solves, a network connecting renowned research institutions worldwide to build a real-time, globally representative database of genomic variants identified by HiFi long-read sequencing.
Christian Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer of PacBio, shared: “The formation of HiFi Solves is a critical step in fostering global collaboration to tackle some of the biggest challenges in genomics research. By connecting experts who are using our instruments to sequence genomes at unprecedented levels of resolution, we are building a more diverse and complete catalog of human variation, paving the way for insights that would otherwise be impossible to discover.”
Omics AI as a Distribution Platform
Omics AI will serve as a distribution platform for AI-powered applications in genomics and health. For example, scientists at SickKids will use the system to distribute models that identify the genetic causes of rare and neurodevelopmental conditions by sharing insights across organizations, and improve cancer treatment by accurately classifying tumors based on gene expression profiles.
Dr. Stephen Scherer, Chief of Research at SickKids, said: “This is a pivotal moment, where we can understand and improve health with molecular precision. The technologies being developed as part of this project will help push the boundaries of what is possible to transform children’s health worldwide.”
Autism Speaks will also support the project by continuing to act as a bridge to include the perspectives of autistic individuals, their families, and communities in technology development, as well as use the platform to power international, inclusive research on autism.
Valence will support expansion to industries beyond healthcare along with providing precise measurement of data value through standardized quality metrics and rarity factors, enabling a secure marketplace for discovery and exchange that accelerates rare disease research.
Innovation Through Collaboration
Omics AI was developed in collaboration with over 40 public and private sector partners, facilitated by DIGITAL, Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies.
Sue Paish, Chief Executive Officer at DIGITAL, commented: “Innovation is a team sport. The success of Omics AI confirms that innovation breakthroughs happen when diverse minds unite to tackle the toughest challenges. This collaboration highlights how DNAstack, collaborating with exceptional Canadian innovators, is leading global data-driven healthcare technology development and deployment— an essential element in effective medical systems. By accelerating the commercialization of genomics, we’re fast-tracking solutions that improve healthcare for Canadians and strengthen our economy.”
About DNAstack
DNAstack is a Canadian company whose mission is to improve lives by unlocking the collective power of the world’s genomics and health data. Omics AI is a software suite by DNAstack that enables privacy-preserving federated insights across distributed data. DNAstack is a global leader in the development of open, interoperable standards as part of the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health (GA4GH).
About DIGITAL
DIGITAL is Canada’s leader in accelerating the development and commercialization of Canadian-made digital technologies that address some of the most pressing needs across our economy and society. DIGITAL’s model of collaborative innovation and co-investment advances the success of Canadian businesses through the development, adoption, and commercialization of Canadian-made technologies while also growing a workforce that is skilled to fill the jobs of a growing digital economy.