Filecoin Case Study: The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

As they work towards finding a cure for heart disease, The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute is utilizing Filecoin to safeguard and share research data.

Industry

Medical research.

Use case

Archival data storage for cardiovascular research.

Challenges

A highly scalable data storage solution that provides:

Data integrity
Data resiliency
Cost savings

Solution

Store the Institute’s data with an independent Filecoin Storage Provider, Distributed Storage Solutions, on the world’s largest decentralized storage network.

Results

The Institute is storing 125+ TiBs of cardiac research data with Filecoin, including raw datasets from published papers consisting of thousands of images of cells & encrypted backups of their SyncroPatch machine, a laboratory technique for studying currents in living cells.

Overview

Heart disease kills more people than any other single disease and remains the single biggest killer of all Australians. One Australian dies from heart disease every 28 minutes.

Founded in 1994 in Sydney Australia, the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute was established in honor of the legendary heart transplant surgeon, Dr Victor Chang AC. The team at the Institute is working urgently to discover better ways of understanding, diagnosing, treating, and preventing the onset of heart disease.

Recent discoveries include:

The identification of the 10 genes most likely to trigger a heart attack which is paving the way for a new field of targeted therapies for those at risk of coronary heart disease.
The development of a new electrical test that can screen hundreds of gene mutations to pinpoint the exact mutations that are harmful to the heart for those suffering from inherited heart disorders syndromes, which can cause sudden cardiac arrest.
The discovery of a potentially life-saving treatment for heart attack victims from the venom of one of the world's deadliest spiders.

With over 230 scientists, doctors, and staff collaborating across 23 laboratories, the Institute's research data storage needs are growing exponentially.

Problem: Medical Detection Instruments Are Generating Larger Datasets

The instruments the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute uses to gather and analyze cardiovascular data are generating larger and larger data sets. For example, one SyncroPatch machine, a laboratory technique for studying currents in living cells, can generate 20,000 data points per day. The Institute is currently contending with how to manage the terabytes of data they’re generating on a weekly basis for years to come.

The research data generated from these instruments also needs to be shared with third parties to verify the Institute's work. Maintaining research data integrity is also critical for the raw datasets the Institute stores for published papers.

The cost of storing increasingly larger datasets with a high degree of data integrity is a major challenge for many organizations but can be especially burdensome for non-for-profit research institutes.

Solution: Filecoin and DSS

Distributed Storage Solutions (DSS) is a leading storage provider on the Filecoin network. They use the network’s decentralized storage technology to provide researchers at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute with a highly scalable data management solution that doesn’t break the bank. DSS also makes it easy for VCCRI to onboard data to Filecoin by providing a managed service offering that’s custom tailored to the Institute’s needs. To date, The Institute is storing 125+ TiBs of cardiac research data on the Filecoin network , including raw datasets from published papers consisting of thousands of images of cells & encrypted backups of their SyncroPatch machine, a laboratory technique for studying currents in living cells.

How Filecoin Helped

“Filecoin helps us overcome our challenges by providing data storage at a cost effective rate and ensuring data integrity. This will allow data from key research projects to be stored for perpetuity, and to be shared with collaborators from around the world." -The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Data Integrity

The Filecoin network utilizes cryptographic proofs to ensure that the Institute's research data remains intact and has not been tampered with. These proofs provide mathematical evidence that the data stored on the network matches the original data and has not been modified. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute can regularly verify these proofs to ensure the integrity of their research data. This process helps to detect data corruption or tampering, ensuring that the Institute's research data remains accurate and reliable.

Filecoin also employs content addressing through unique content identifiers (CIDs) to identify and retrieve files based on their content. This ensures that the integrity of the data remains intact, as any modifications to the data would result in a different CID. The content addressing approach provides strong guarantees of data integrity, which is required by the Institute when they are storing data for published papers.

“Filecoin is the only data storage technology that can provide strong guarantees of data integrity through the use of cryptographic proofs & unique content identifiers which is vitally important for our research and published papers.” - The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Scalability

Decentralized storage systems like Filecoin are highly scalable, allowing the Institute to easily expand storage capacity as their research data grows. Instead of relying on expensive centralized storage solutions that require substantial upfront investments, decentralized storage can offer a more cost-effective approach. It eliminates the need for maintaining and upgrading expensive storage infrastructure, as the storage resources are distributed across multiple nodes Another important aspect of the technology is that it relies on an engaged community of Storage Providers like DSS to ensure VCCRI data is stored redundantly around the globe, eliminating the risk of a single point of failure.

Cost-Effectiveness

The costs of storing large data sets for years on end is a major challenge for all companies but especially for a non-for-profit like the VCCRI. The current data the Institutes has on Filecoin would cost approximately $1,500+ per month to store on a public cloud, not including operations and data transfer fees. Thanks to the network incentives on which Filecoin is based, organizations like the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute are able to store data at a fraction of the cost of centralized cloud storage services.

Conclusion

Distributed Storage Solutions and the Filecoin Network have provided the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute with a scalable and cost-effective solution for managing their large datasets. Filecoin ensures data integrity through cryptographic proofs and unique content identifiers, which are essential for research and published papers. The decentralized storage network also offers scalability, allowing the Institute to easily expand their storage capacity as needed. Overall, The adoption of decentralized storage has revolutionized the Institute's data management practices, enabling them to store and manage their large datasets in a more efficient and secure manner than traditional cloud storage.

“Filecoin is making a huge difference to the way we store our world research data. It provides a unique service that not only allows data from our key research projects to be stored for perpetuity, it also ensures the integrity of our research data through the use of unique content identifiers. Given that many of our projects increasingly generate huge raw data sets, this is incredibly important for the Institute. It’s also vital that we can easily and safely share open-data sets with like-minded researchers to advance heart disease research that will benefit patients the world over.” -Todd Ryman, IT Director at Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Learn more about the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute is renowned for the quality of its scientific discoveries and is dedicated to finding cures for cardiovascular disease through world-class and cutting-edge medical research. Their mission is to undertake innovative, inclusive, collaborative, and cutting-edge medical research that improves the understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The team at the Institute is working urgently to discover better ways of understanding, diagnosing, treating, and preventing the onset of heart disease and is committed to ensuring its research breakthroughs are translated into advances in clinical care. For more information about The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, please visit https://www.victorchang.edu.au/.

Discover VCCRI on social media

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

Support heart research

By supporting the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute you are continuing the vital medical research into heart disease. To discover how you can help create a world free of heart disease, please visit https://www.victorchang.edu.au/support-us.