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LabTrace Completes First Study Using Its Blockchain-Based Data Authentication System, Designed to Ensure Data Integrity in Clinical Trials
Parkinson’s Disease Research Sponsored by King’s College London Verifies Clinical Observation Data Using Algorand Blockchain
LONDON, June 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Laboratory tracea blockchain authentication system for data integrity and ownership certification, today announces the completion of the first experimental medicine study (ref ID: NCT03782753) to use its on-chain notarization tool, a new solution for proving the provenance of medical research data. The study, sponsored by King’s College London (KCL), involved patients with Parkinson’s disease. Using the Algorand blockchain, LabTrace introduced unprecedented transparency, accountability, and security to the verification of scientific research data.
There is growing concern that the exponential expansion of digital data in healthcare and medical research is accompanied by a growing incidence of scientific fraud. Second The Guardian, in 2023, “the annual number of articles retracted from research journals surpassed 10,000 for the first time,” and “most analysts believe this figure is just the tip of the scientific fraud iceberg.” One reason cited for the increase in falsified data is the pressure to generate blockbuster, high-impact results, which provide researchers with greater recognition and opportunities for career advancement.
“Progress in science and medicine is critically dependent on the quality of the data collected in our research studies, and we take this responsibility very seriously,” said Professor Steve Williams, director of the Centre for Neuroimaging Science at King’s College London and the study’s lead investigator. “The integrity of research data is the foundation of medical innovation, and LabTrace’s blockchain-based system gives us the level of transparency we need to trust, track and authenticate our data.”
LabTrace’s blockchain-based data authentication system offers a unique and transparent solution for:
- Certify the authorship and provenance of the data
- Establish and record a researcher’s ownership rights to data and findings
- Securely date and time stamp and record experimental data, original work, ideas and inventions in a verifiable manner
- Support drug approvals and patent applications
- Protect yourself from intellectual property and data theft
This is done by attaching unique Content IDs (CIDs), which follow IPFS standards, to all recorded data. Each CID file receives on-chain authentication from authorized parties, with user permissions defined and controlled by an Algorand smart contract (i.e. role-based access control). KCL implemented LabTrace as an additional layer of immutable record keeping and to demonstrate a viable path to maintaining the integrity of digital medical data.
After reviewing the blockchain landscape, LabTrace determined that Algorand, a leading Layer-1 solution known for its high performance and reliability, was best suited to meet the rigorous requirements of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The specific benefits of Algorand are:
- Its Layer-1 smart contract programmability, which enables role-based access control
- High processing capacity of 10,000 transactions (or on-chain records) per second
- High certainty and immediate finality of transactions, which provide an immediate and immutable guarantee of the information recorded in the register.
It is possible to view the timestamps and authenticated authentications that certify the results of the process Here.
“This is a major achievement for our company, as it demonstrates that our solution can be easily adopted in experimental medicine studies, managing data of any type,” said Federico Turkheimer, professor at King’s College London and director of LabTrace. “We believe we have created a solution to enable full traceability of data in clinical trials and increase scientific reproducibility in medical research.”
“With AI expanding the scope and sophistication of potential data manipulation and fraud, it is more important than ever that researchers, regulators and the public have reliable data sources,” said Eric Wragge, global head of business development and of capital markets for the Algorand Foundation. “Accurate data is the foundation of scientific progress everywhere, and we are honored that Algorand is the blockchain on which the Labtrace solution was built.”
About LabTrace
LabTrace believes that certified and verifiable data is the cornerstone of a trusted digital society. The company has a mission to enable complete data traceability in clinical trials and increase scientific reproducibility in medical research. To further this goal, LabTrace has created a blockchain-based system for secure, GDPR-compliant, and immutable notarization of digital data. For more information, visit www.labtrace.io.
About the Algorand Foundation
Algorand’s mission is to power a world where information is intact and innovative ideas can grow. The Algorand Foundation supports the rapidly growing Algorand ecosystem by providing a world-class development environment, supporting key infrastructure and defining technical standards, offering comprehensive support to builders and entrepreneurs, and providing the infrastructure for decentralized governance.
Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali in 2019, Algorand has grown into a vibrant ecosystem of developers, entrepreneurs and corporate partners who benefit from institutional-grade certainty and resilience, while features like low fees, instant finality and a of minimal carbon also attract the protocol’s millions of retail users. Builders of all types can use common programming languages like Python to develop advanced apps and protocols that solve important problems on a global scale: instant payments in war zones and disasters, self-sovereign identity for the marginalized, supply chain traceability for global trade, permissionless protocols addressing financial inclusion, and the creation of entirely new markets via tokenization, to name a few. To learn more and begin your Algorand journey, visit algorand foundation.
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