Can you find out about your genes, without selling your soul?
There is a huge amount of excitement about how genetic data can make healthcare more personalised, teach us more about ourselves, and revolutionise the way we develop drugs. But, beneath all of this excitement, there are also serious concerns about data privacy, breaches of trust, and monopoly by private companies.
How can we make personalised medicine a reality without sacrificing our privacy or having our health data sold to the highest bidder?
Our story begins two years ago…
When we started Heterogeneous more than two years ago, we set out to change the way research into genomics and personalised medicine was done by putting our users in control of their genomic and health data.
Through conversations with patient groups and advocates over the past two years, we have learned a lot about what motivates people to participate in research, what fears/anxieties people hold about participating in research, and what we can do better as a community.
Now, we are excited to take our learnings forward with the release of a new platform, a new name, and a new brand that embodies the spirit of empowerment and transparency that is core to our platform.
Introducing… Sano Genetics
How are we different?
One of our core values is transparency. To us, transparency means:
- A commitment to honesty in our actions as a company
- Data use and privacy policies that are clear and put users in control
- A dedication to communicating challenging concepts with as much clarity as possible
We wanted our brand to, at its core, reflect our commitment to transparency, honesty and user empowerment. We have therefore been working to marry the physical to the abstract, and create a visual identity that truly represent our vision for the future of medical research and clinical trials.
We believe in:
- Actively involving participants in all stages of the research process
- Keeping DNA data sets anonymous and secure
- Never taking user permission for granted, with easily customisable account preferences
- Supporting research that makes data and findings widely available, so that everyone can benefit
What’s next?
Having a brand based on transparency is clearly not enough on it’s own. We have made a number of tangible changes to our platform to push the envelope in communicating data privacy and giving our users control.
One major change is the addition of the ‘My data’ section on your homepage that allows you to see all of the data you have ever added to your profile and which research projects you have contributed to. The ‘My data’ section also provides full control around how your data will be used in the future, and a way to easily download or delete any part of your profile.
Get involved today
We have exciting studies running from Autism to Muscular Dystrophy to Psoriasis and are adding more than one new study per month!
If you would like to explore the new platform, you can do so here.
Any ideas or questions you have please feel free to leave a comment, or email us directly.
