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Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) crypto arm has made its first foray into the burgeoning field of Decentralized Science (DeSci) with leading a $5 million seed round in AminoChain, the firm announced on Wednesday.
This investment, which also saw the participation of private investment fund Cercano, brings AminoChain's total funding to date to $7 million.
AminoChain is building an entirely new enterprise on-chain bioeconomy, where users will benefit from D-Apps in clinical recruitment, real world evidence, federated learning, and much more.
— AminoChain (@Amino_Chain) September 25, 2024
The company is building a decentralized biobank platform on a Layer 2 blockchain protocol. This platform connects medical institutions and allows them to securely share and transact medical data – a network of biobanks where researchers can easily find and access samples, while patients retain control and receive compensation for the use of their data, according to the company.
What is DeSci and Why Does it Matter?
Traditional medical research often suffers from a lack of transparency and control for patients. Data ownership is often murky, and patients have little say in how their samples are used. DeSci aims to change this by utilizing blockchain technology to create a secure, transparent, and patient-centric ecosystem.
"We believe that blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize almost any industry where transparency, security, and ownership are core and presents a tremendous opportunity to accelerate progress in healthcare and science," Arianna Simpson, general partner at a16z, said in a post on Twitter/X.
Simpson referenced the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells (known as HeLa cells) were used in countless medical breakthroughs without her knowledge or consent. This highlights the historical lack of transparency and patient empowerment in medical research. AminoChain's platform aims to address this by giving patients ownership and control over their data, allowing them to track its usage and potentially benefit financially from its contribution to research, she said.
Connecting Medical Institutions and Empowering Patients
AminoChain is a technology platform that connects enterprise medical institutions, enabling them to securely share and transact medical data. But the company envisions its platform as a foundation for a broader ecosystem of healthcare applications (DApps). These applications could streamline clinical trial recruitment, facilitate the collection of real-world evidence, and enable secure federated learning (a privacy-preserving machine learning technique), the company said.
At the heart of the platform is the Amino Node, a software package that integrates with existing medical institutions' technology stacks. This allows for the harmonization and standardization of data, making it interoperable across a network of collaborators.
The first application built on AminoChain is the Specimen Center, a peer-to-peer bio-sample marketplace. This marketplace allows biobanks to easily search for and request research samples, streamlining the often time-consuming process of acquiring necessary materials. Patients can also track the use of their samples and potentially benefit financially from their contribution to research.
AminoChain's vision extends beyond the Specimen Center. The platform aims to create a new bioeconomy where patients are empowered to benefit from their participation in scientific research.
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