Pacific Analytics Advances Key Initiatives at GA4GH April Connect 2025

Pacific Analytics Advances Key Initiatives at GA4GH April Connect 2025

The Pacific Analytics team recently returned from a productive and inspiring Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) April Connect 2025 meeting. GA4GH plays a vital role in accelerating human health progress by fostering the responsible and effective use of genomic data globally, and these meetings are crucial for collaboration. We're pleased to share updates on two significant initiatives where Pacific Analytics is taking a leading role.

Launching the "Open TRE Suite" GA4GH Implementation Forum Project

We are excited to be at the forefront of the new "Open TRE Suite" GA4GH Implementation Forum (GIF) project. This initiative received approval in March 2025 and was formally presented during a dedicated session at the April Connect meeting.

Project Leadership: Pacific Analytics is spearheading this project in collaboration with our valued partners at GENXT, the Technical University of Dresden, and the ELIXIR Cloud & AAI Driver Project.

Project Overview: The "Open TRE Suite" aims to develop a GA4GH-native framework for Trusted Research Environments (TREs), complete with an extensible Software Development Kit (SDK). The core goal is to enable secure, interoperable, and privacy-preserving management of biomedical data in federated settings. This will provide TRE providers with a user-friendly toolkit to establish secure environments for sensitive data analysis, incorporating advanced technologies like Confidential Computing and Homomorphic Encryption, and aligning with established frameworks such as EOSC-ENTRUST and the Five Safes. For researchers, this will mean more seamless collaboration, improved access to data and analytical tools (leveraging key GA4GH standards like DRS, TES, and Passports), and maintained data sovereignty.

Get Involved: This is a significant undertaking, and community participation is welcome.

Express your interest via this form: https://tinyurl.com/open-tre-suite

Join the discussion on the GA4GH Slack: channel #gif-open-tre The project is expected to commence in June/July.

Driving Standards for Federated Machine Learning

Pacific Analytics also co-chaired an important session on "Standards for enabling federated machine learning." This collaborative effort involved our partners from Microsoft Research, the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Chicago, and the ELIXIR Cloud & AAI Driver Project.

Session Focus: The session explored the application of federated machine learning (FL) to genomic and health-related data. The objective was to discuss requirements, review existing products, and assess how these elements align with current GA4GH APIs, ultimately aiming to develop a strategy for advancing FL using GA4GH standards.

Session Summary: It was a highly interactive workshop that underscored both the promise and complexities of using FL for privacy-preserving AI with decentralised data. Various FL frameworks were presented, and the group addressed technical and ethical challenges.

Key Outcome: A strong consensus emerged that GA4GH is ideally positioned to support FL implementations. Consequently, following the session, the project leadership and interested parties decided to propose a new GA4GH Implementation Forum (GIF) Project to build on this momentum.

Get Involved: Stay informed and participate in discussions on the GA4GH Slack channel: #federated-ml.

Pacific Analytics is dedicated to advancing genomics and health through the collaborative development of global standards. We are enthusiastic about the potential of these new initiatives and invite the broader community to engage with us.

For further details on the GA4GH April Connect 2025 meeting, please see the official meeting report.