Assessing the feasibility and security of API deployment for DNA compression

Details

Supervisors

Macq, Benoît

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil en informatique, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This document presents a comprehensive state of the art on genomic data compression and API development, with a particular focus on the Variant Call Format (VCF), a standard widely used in bioinformatics for storing genomic variants. The study evaluates existing compression algorithms, both generic and specialized, while providing an in-depth analysis of the Secure VCF Compressor (SVC), a tool designed to meet the dual challenges of data reduction and privacy preservation. Special attention is given to cryptographic challenges and the seamless integration of data security mechanisms within the compression pipeline. To contextualize SVC's capabilities, the project includes a comparative benchmarking analysis against other tools such as GSC, focusing on metrics like compression ratio, execution time and encryption overhead. To enhance usability and accessibility, the work also details the development of a RESTful API named STRONGBOX, which encapsulates the SVC executable within a Dockerized infrastructure. This API enables asynchronous, web-based access to compression, decompression and mutation analysis services, while incorporating features such as traceability, population-wide variant statistics and audit logging. This project ultimately bridges the gap between advanced genomic compression techniques and real-world deployment needs, proposing a practical and secure framework tailored to the demands of privacy-aware genomic workflows.