GA4GH Data Use & Researcher Identity Work Stream welcomes new Co-Lead Jonathan Lawson

8 Aug 2024

Jonathan Lawson of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has been appointed as the new Co-Lead of the GA4GH Data Use & Researcher Identity (DURI) Work Stream.

By Jaclyn Estrin, GA4GH Science Writer

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is pleased to welcome Jonathan Lawson of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as the new Co-Lead of the Data Use & Research Identity (DURI) Work Stream. Lawson joins incumbent DURI Co-Lead Jaime Guidry Auvil of the Center for Biomedical Informatics & Information Technology at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Cancer Institute.

Lawson is Director of Federal Partnerships for the Data Sciences Platform at the Broad Institute, one of GA4GH’s five Host Institutions. In this role, he leads the design, development, and delivery of products pertaining to several software platforms that support biomedical research. Lawson’s work has an intrinsic link to GA4GH’s tenets of responsible genomic data sharing, as he focuses on the lifecycle of data from storage and access to ethical governance and management.

He now brings his expertise to the DURI Work Stream, whose mission is twofold: developing tools that determine how datasets can be used and who can access them. 

When participating in health services or research studies, patients and research participants consent to the use of their personal health data and may designate the terms and conditions for that use. DURI develops specifications, protocols, and policies that respect the patients’ wishes, privacy, and consents within the use of this data. 

Lawson said, “When we talk about data use or secondary use, we need to have clear boundaries on how researchers are allowed to use data, where it can go, and who can touch it.”

“DURI policies and standards are akin to security checkpoints and passport control in airports,” Lawson continued. “While the infrastructure for air travel or biomedical science is technically functional without them, they uphold and protect the trust essential for the diverse and necessary groups to interact with one another using the given infrastructure.” 

As an active contributor of the DURI Work Stream, Lawson provided critical feedback during the development of the GA4GH Passports standard, which serves as a portable electronic identifier. This standard provides a specification for how a researcher’s role, institutions, agreements, and approvals may be represented in technical ecosystems.

Participating in GA4GH Work Streams since 2017, Lawson serves as Product Co-Lead for the Data Use Ontology (DUO), alongside Mélanie Courtot (Ontario Institute for Cancer Research), moving the standard from ideation through initial approval. DUO clarifies how data can be used through machine-readable tags on datasets and helps to facilitate data discovery and access. 

He also worked on the standardisation of Data Access Agreements, and co-led the development of the Data Access Committee Review Standards (DACReS) Toolkit with Vasiliki Rahimzadeh (Baylor College of Medicine) and Edward Dove (University of Edinburgh), which provides standard guidance for Data Access Committees to efficiently review data access requests.

Lawson has collaborated on a number of products with the GA4GH Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream (REWS), including the DACReS Toolkit, drawing a link between data use and the ethical, legal, and social frameworks that arise within genomic research and international data sharing. Through this collaboration, Lawson provided feedback on the GA4GH Machine Readable Consent Guidance (MRCG), which gives instruction on how to map research participants’ consent forms directly to the DUO, and helped develop the Ethical Provenance Toolkit, which aims to harmonise tools used throughout the lifecycle of biomedical data. 

He is optimistic about galvanising the work of DURI by engaging individuals with a blended expertise and continuing to foster cross-Work-Stream collaboration. “We are aiming to write policies and standards that facilitate the bleeding edge of science while upholding or enhancing compliance. We are going to need to work together with the broader GA4GH community and across Work Streams more than ever,” Lawson said. “There is an opportunity for science to build upon genomics’ roots as an inherently collaborative endeavour.”

Lawson is looking forward to advancing the standards that have been developed by DURI, promoting widespread responsible data sharing, and expanding the Work Stream’s impact through strategic and standardised data use frameworks, perhaps applicable even beyond the field of genomics.

“A colleague of mine often notes that the logistics of science are as important as the science itself, and we need to think hard about both,” Lawson said. “I wholeheartedly agree. Within DURI, we are trying to make science faster by making the logistics of science faster, and that ultimately is going to improve human health.”