Cassa, ChristopherSchmidt, BrianKohane, IsaacMandl, Kenneth2011-12-012008Cassa, Christopher A, Brian Schmidt, Isaac S Kohane, and Kenneth D Mandl. 2008. My sister's keeper?: genomic research and the identifiability of siblings. BMC Medical Genomics 1:32.1755-8794http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:5358885Background: Genomic sequencing of SNPs is increasingly prevalent, though the amount of familial information these data contain has not been quantified. Methods: We provide a framework for measuring the risk to siblings of a patient's SNP genotype disclosure, and demonstrate that sibling SNP genotypes can be inferred with substantial accuracy. Results: Extending this inference technique, we determine that a very low number of matches at commonly varying SNPs is sufficient to confirm sib-ship, demonstrating that published sequence data can reliably be used to derive sibling identities. Using HapMap trio data, at SNPs where one child is homozygotic major, with a minor allele frequency \(\geq 0.20\), \((N = 452684, 65.1\%)\) we achieve \(91.9\%\) inference accuracy for sibling genotypes. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that substantial discrimination and privacy risks arise from use of inferred familial genomic data.en-USJournal Article2011-12-0110.1186/1755-8794-1-32