IOTA Mentioned in Latest Patent Application of British Biotech Giant Leica Biosystems

In the recently published patent application, of British Biotech Giant Leica Biosystems, titled 'Immutable-Ledger-Based Workflow Management For Patient Samples' has mention of IOTA blockchain.

New Leica's patent concerns the workflow of the management of samples obtained during microscopic studies.

Leica notes that immutable ledgers are a promising tool used to manage digital assets. In particular, the use of a modification-resistant ledger implemented as a blockchain or directed acyclic graph (DAG) provides accurate and efficient asset tracking.

This technology can also be used with samples, which lately can be used to identify pathogens, make diagnoses, archiving, and other medical purposes.

Blockchain for biotech

The authors of the patent application note that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which regulates individually identifiable health information assumes that health information related to patients’ specimens shouldn't be public. A blockchain is a great tool for ensuring privacy specimen tracking. 

IOTA role

The workflow management system based on an immutable ledger for patient samples (for example, tissue samples) can use a directed acyclic graph (DAG), which is a hierarchy of nodes without any cycles. 

It is designed to work with huge arrays of information. If the network size is small, DAGs are more vulnerable compared to classic blockchains. To add a transaction to a DAG, a user must approve two randomly chosen unconfirmed transactions. In such a system, native tokens can be used, in particular, an example of such use can be IOTA in Tangle™.