Organoids, 3D models of our organs that are created from our stem cells, allow for personalised medicine, which means giving an individual the treatment that works best for them. Doctors can test a course of treatment on an organoid to understand more precisely how the organoid’s stem cell donor will react to that treatment. Organoids also offer great promise for researchers, because they allow for more accurate in vitro testing. While patients generally want to allow their organoids to be used to for research or personalised medicine purposes, organoids are repositories of data about the person who donated the stem cells, so cell donors need to be able to protect their data. For their part, researchers need to be able to ask stem cell donors for permission before conducting research on their organoids, which is difficult to do if donors are kept anonymous.

The TWINs project is developing a “biobank” that will preserve organoids for research and allow the identification of an organid donor while still protecting their privacy, using smart contract and distributed ledger technology.