Geneticker Concept preview Try Cipher

Genomics on your own device

Read your genome. Research the world’s. Move neither.

Geneticker reads DNA on your own device. Researchers can ask the whole pool questions, and only the anonymous answer comes back.

Read my genome I’m a researcher
No file? Cipher has a sample genome — no account

Behind this text, an animation: a DNA double helix turns continuously while A, T, G and C letter blocks drift about and now and then dock into it.

01 Two doors

One genome. Two ways in.

Cipher is for reading your own DNA. Decipher is for researchers who want to learn from many people without collecting anyone’s.

For you

c.geneticker.com

Cipher

Read your own genome, right here in your browser. No account.

  • 59 curated readings in plain words — from eye colour to how you handle caffeine.
  • Medicines that may work differently for you, with how sure we are.
  • Findings you may not want to know stay hidden until you choose to look.
Read my genome

No file yet? A sample genome is ready there.

For researchers

d.geneticker.com

Decipher

Ask the whole pool a question. Get back one anonymous answer — never a genome.

  • Write the question as a sentence, and see how many people you could reach before you publish.
  • Answers are encrypted on each device. Nothing is released until 20 people answer.
  • One sentence, one chart, and a citation you can paste into your paper.
Open the demo workspace See this study

02 How it works

Only the answer moves.

A question goes out to many devices; one noised total comes back. Researchers never see your DNA unless you choose to donate it.

  1. 1

    The question travels

    A researcher writes a question. It goes only to devices whose owners allowed that kind of question.

  2. 2

    Each device answers privately

    Your device works out its answer from your genome and encrypts it before it leaves.

  3. 3

    One noised total returns

    Answers are added up while still encrypted. Nothing is released until 20 people answer, and the total carries privacy noise.

03 Your choice

You decide what leaves your device.

Reading your genome never needs it to leave. Anything more is a choice you make, one step at a time. You can stop sharing whenever you like, but copies already out — an encrypted copy on public storage, a donated genome, answers already released — can’t be called back.

  1. Nothing

    Default

    Your genome is read on this device and stays here.

    What leaves
    What we can readNothing

  2. Anonymous markers

    You pick a few markers to give to research, without your name.

    What leaves
    What we can readThose markers

  3. Encrypted genome

    Keep an encrypted copy on public storage (IPFS), locked with a key that never reaches us.

    What leaves
    What we can readNothing — we hold only ciphertext

  4. Full donation

    Give your genome to research. It’s kept sealed on our servers, researchers can open it, and copies they’ve fetched can’t be called back.

    What leaves
    What we can readYour genome — we and researchers can

For research questions, set a sensitivity level.

Every question is labelled 0 to 7 by how much it could reveal. Pick the highest you’re comfortable with.

Level 2

Ancestry & lineage

For example

Who it can tell about

  • You
  • Blood relativesparents, siblings, children
  • A partnerif you’re planning children

Questions at levels 0–2 can reach you. Levels 3–7 never will. A research question can never ask above the level you allowed.

04 Radically honest

Four things we’d rather say than have you find out.

  1. Readings are information, not a diagnosis.

    A reading says what a marker usually means; a clinician says what it means for you.

  2. An aggregate is not automatically anonymous — so nothing is released below 20 people, and every answer carries privacy noise.

    Small groups can give people away. Twenty is our floor.

  3. A public genome is public forever.

    Once others have a copy, it can’t be called back.

  4. Your DNA is also your relatives’ DNA.

    What you learn or share can say something about them too.

05 Before you start

Will my file work?

Drop it here and we’ll tell you in a second.

Where do I get my file?
23andMe
In your account settings, find Download raw data. You’ll get a .zip — drop it into Cipher as it is.
AncestryDNA
In your DNA settings, choose Download DNA data. Drop the .zip into Cipher as it is (or the AncestryDNA.txt inside).
Whole-genome or exome sequencing
Your provider’s download page usually offers a VCF (often .vcf.gz). Choose that, not BAM, CRAM or FASTQ.

No file handy? See how it answers:

Tiny synthetic examples, made in your browser. Not real people.

06 More tools

Tools that never upload.

Small, single-purpose tools from the same lab.

Start with a sample genome.

A real, public genome is waiting in Cipher. No account needed — and when you’re ready, your own file works the same way.

Try Cipher I’m a researcher