DNAstack
Seven production networks across four continents demonstrate that sharing insights — not data — delivers better health outcomes while keeping sensitive patient information under the sovereign control of the institutions that hold it
TORONTO, Ontario — Health and genomic data are strategic national assets. Around the world, governments are recognizing that the AI models shaping the future of medicine are only as powerful as the data they learn from — yet centralizing sensitive patient data to fuel those models risks surrendering the very sovereignty that health systems are built to protect.DNAstack, founded in Toronto, has resolved this tension. Through a federated architecture proven across seven production genomic networks and processing more than 100,000 samples annually, DNAstack delivers complete sovereign control of patient data combined with the analytical insights across a global AI network. Data never moves. Institutions retain governance. AI learns from the entire network.
What Sovereign AI Makes Possible — For Every Canadian
DNAstack’s platform translates directly into better outcomes for Canadian patients and the physicians who care for them:
- Sovereign AI that stays in Canada — all intellectual property and commercial value generated from Canadian data is owned domestically, with the platform designed from the ground up to meet the strictest provincial and territorial data residency requirements.
- Faster, more confident diagnosis — particularly for rare disease patients whose conditions have historically taken years and multiple specialists to identify. Long-read sequencing combined with AI-powered tertiary analysis can increase diagnostic yield by 10–15%, drawing on evidence from over one million clinically characterized genomes.
- Earlier identification of inherited risk factors — giving patients and clinicians the opportunity to act proactively rather than reactively, shifting the health system toward prevention.
- More precisely matched treatment pathways — reducing the trial-and-error that extends suffering and consumes health system resources.
- Provincial and national interoperability — built on open standards including HL7 FHIR and GA4GH specifications that DNAstack’s own engineers authored, enabling seamless integration with laboratory information systems, electronic health records, and public health infrastructure.
“We are proud to build our innovation here in Ontario, and our goal every day is for medical teams and researchers to save more lives by leveraging genomics and health data to enable preventative diagnoses and faster treatment for each individual citizen. I first started trying to solve the e-health data issue almost 20 years ago, and we’ve finally done it in such an innovative way. I want my family, friends, neighbours and all Ontarians to be healthier because of this, and with our governments nationally being aligned in making bold changes to protect our country and its citizens, this should be the time we abandon past approaches and finally make this happen, and fast!”
— Peter AP Zakarow, Chair, DNAstack Advisory Board
Sovereignty, Not Solitude — Building Canada’s AI Infrastructure Through Partnership
The sovereign AI model that DNAstack has pioneered is built on a principle that Canada’s own national strategy recognizes: sovereignty does not mean isolation. It means Canadian control, Canadian data residency, and Canadian intellectual property protection — achieved through structured partnerships with world-class technology providers, not by turning inward.
DNAstack’s platform is cloud-native and infrastructure-agnostic, designed to operate across any combination of Canadian-resident cloud environments. Health systems retain full control over where their data resides, are never locked into a single provider, and can evolve their infrastructure independently as requirements change. Sovereignty is a property of the architecture, not a constraint on which infrastructure it runs on.
DNAstack was founded in Toronto with approximately 90% of its workforce based in Ontario. The company built its platform in Ontario’s innovation ecosystem, drawing on the province’s deep concentration of genomics, health research, AI, and technology talent. That foundation has produced a sovereign AI platform trusted by some of the world’s leading clinical and research institutions across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Raw genomic data stays under institutional governance at all times. AI models train across the network through federated learning, where only model parameters — never patient-level data — flow between institutions. Agentic Science capabilities autonomously execute complex multi-step analyses with full evidentiary grounding, linking every finding to verifiable sources across the network, published literature, and curated knowledge bases.
“Genome sequencing can help deliver answers to patients who need it most — but only if we can learn from global datasets while protecting participants’ privacy. DNAstack has built the infrastructure to do exactly that: sovereign AI that keeps data under institutional control while drawing on the intelligence of an entire global network. Our production networks prove the model works — and position Canada to lead the world in responsible, sovereign precision health.”
— Marc Fiume, CEO, DNAstack
Why Sovereign AI. Why Now. Why Canada.
Three forces are converging to make this a generational opportunity for Canada.
The need is urgent.
Canada’s health system is under mounting pressure. An aging population, rising chronic disease burden, and escalating costs demand a fundamental shift from reactive care to prevention, early detection, and precision treatment. Genomics and AI are the tools that make this shift possible — but only if the data infrastructure exists to support them at scale, within the privacy and sovereignty frameworks that Canadians expect.
The policy is aligning.
The Government of Canada’s $2-billion Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy is the clearest signal yet that sovereign AI infrastructure is a federal priority. The Canadian Genomics Strategy and Canadian Precision Health Initiative are investing hundreds of millions in building the country’s genomic data assets. Bill S-5, the Connected Care for Canadians Act, mandates common interoperability standards and prohibits data blocking across health systems — principles that are foundational to DNAstack’s open-standards architecture. Across every level of government, the direction is unmistakable: Canadian health data must remain under Canadian control, processed on Canadian-resident infrastructure, governed by Canadian institutions.
The technology is here.
Long-read sequencing is revealing structural variants and disease patterns invisible to prior technologies. Federated learning enables AI training across distributed data without centralization. And AI can now execute multi-step scientific workflows autonomously. As provinces invest in genomic data platforms and precision health infrastructure, decision-makers have an opportunity to procure from Canadian-headquartered companies that guarantee domestic data residency, Canadian-owned intellectual property, and alignment with provincial privacy legislation. The technology to do this at production scale exists today. It was built in Ontario.
Canada is uniquely positioned to lead. With world-class research hospitals, one of the most diverse populations on Earth, and a domestic sovereign AI platform ready for deployment, Canada has everything required to set the global standard for responsible genomic AI. The value generated from Canadian data will stay in Canada — creating high-value jobs, building exportable technology, and establishing Canadian leadership in the standards that will govern genomic AI worldwide.
Proven at Scale — From Ontario’s Pandemic Response to Global Genomic Networks
DNAstack’s sovereign AI platform is production infrastructure, not a prototype. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DNAstack delivered Viral AI — Canada’s national viral genomics surveillance platform — in direct partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Genomics. The platform processed over 550,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes, tracked more than 1,600 viral lineages across nine provinces, and reduced surveillance turnaround from three months to under 21 days. It sustained 99.97% uptime throughout the pandemic response.
That operational foundation extends globally. DNAstack operates production genomic networks across four continents, serving over 100 institutions — including Target ALS and Autism Speaks MSSNG, the world’s largest whole-genome sequencing database for autism research, built in partnership with SickKids and anchored in Ontario. In partnership with PacBio, DNAstack powers the HiFi Solves Global Consortium, connecting nearly 30 institutions across 15 countries with more than 10,000 whole genome sequences committed to a shared federated rare disease dataset.
Through Canada’s DIGITAL Global Innovation Cluster, DNAstack has led multiple federally funded Supercluster initiatives representing over $50 million in combined investment, engaging over 40 partner organizations. These projects generated 100% Canadian-owned intellectual property and produced the Omics AI platform that now powers DNAstack’s global operations from its Ontario headquarters.
Recognized Globally. Rooted in Canada.
DNAstack’s global recognition reflects the calibre of what has been built here. The World Economic Forum named DNAstack a Technology Pioneer (2022), Life Sciences Ontario named the company Canada’s Life Sciences Company of the Year (2023), and DNAstack was named the PICCASO Canada Health Privacy Leader (2024). Since its founding, DNAstack has been a founding contributor to the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and to ISO global genomics data standards, driven by a belief in open standards and GA4GH’s mission to create a more connected future for genomics and health data.
Partnerships with sequencers, advocacy groups, clinical laboratories, hospitals, cloud providers, research funders, and government agencies across 15 countries demonstrate that Canadian-built infrastructure can anchor a global network — attracting international investment and collaboration into Ontario while ensuring that the intellectual property, the operational expertise, and the commercial value remain here.
About DNAstack
DNAstack is a world leader in sovereign AI infrastructure for genomics and precision health, founded in Toronto and headquartered in Ontario. Its federated platform enables health care institutions and research organizations to share insights — not data — unlocking the power of global AI while preserving data sovereignty and patient privacy. The platform is built on open, internationally adopted standards including HL7 FHIR and GA4GH specifications. The architecture is cloud-native and infrastructure-agnostic, deployed on secure, Canada-resident infrastructure. DNAstack supports precision health initiatives across rare disease, oncology, neuroscience, infectious disease, and population health, and has driven more than $50 million in Canadian innovation investment. Learn more at dnastack.com.