UM paper selected as Editor’s Choice of the European Journal of Human Genetics

A paper by a multidisciplinary team of UM academics, covering expertise in computer science, social science, and ethics has been selected as part of the Editor’s Choice collection for May’s issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics, a Springer Nature publication.

The paper, titled Dwarna: a blockchain solution for dynamic consent, is one of five articles chosen by the journal’s Editor: a “selection of key papers that highlight some of the best current research published in the journal.”

The journal article describes an innovative IT system that uses the blockchain to facilitate participation in biomedical research studies. Dwarna enables dynamic consent, allowing participants to dynamically give or withdraw consent for research studies to use their biospecimen. The consent changes are stored securely using blockchain technology.

The paper was made available online in the European Journal of Human Genetics in December 2019 with open access, and was published in volume 28, issue 5 of the journal in May 2020.

The research team is composed of Dr Gillian Martin (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts), Dr Jean-Paul Ebejer, Mr Nicholas Mamo and Ms Maria Desira (all from the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking), and Dr Bridget Ellul (Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery). Dwarna is funded by the Vodafone Malta Foundation.

For further information about this research, kindly contact Dr Jean-Paul Ebejer.

From https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/news/features/2020/06/dwarna-selected-european-journal