BENTO BIO acquires MyLinks, sponsors AI Drug Development Conference with Carahsoft
BENTO Biology Platforms Acquires MyLinks to Build Recontactable, Patient-Consented Registry Engine Linking Health Records Data, Biospecimens, and Lived Experience.
Combining BENTO's direct-to-patient biospecimen collection with MyLinks' FHIR data infrastructure across U.S. clinics and labs creates linked, longitudinal data that patients control through programmable consent and permission architecture.
BOSTON, October 26, 2026 — BENTO Biology Platforms Inc. (BENTO), a clinical trial acceleration platform, known for direct-to-patient biosampling and logistics, today announced that it has acquired MyLinks, the patient-facing health data platform founded by software engineer and cancer advocate Debi Willis, along with MyResearchLink, its data interoperability bridge to regulators and clinical trial sponsors. Deal terms were not disclosed.
The combination lets BENTO link three kinds of data to the same consenting person over time: clinical records drawn from across the U.S. health system, biospecimens collected at home, and the daily experience patients report themselves. Members can also be recontacted for new surveys, new samples, or clinical trial invitations. BENTO is announcing the acquisition on the eve of the AI Drug Discovery & Development Summit (AIDDD), held October 27–29 in Boston, which it is co-sponsoring with its distributor, Carahsoft Technologies.
Why linkage matters
Most commercial health datasets hold a single type of data, captured once, with no way back to the person it came from. Far rarer, and more valuable, are cohorts where records, specimens, and patient context stay tied to the same engaged individual for years. UK Biobank, which recruited about 500,000 participants between 2006 and 2010 and follows their health through linked records, became a leading global research accelerator on that model. BENTO aims to build patient-powered counterpart in which patients themselves decide how their data is used. Bento’s API-first architecture brings regulatory-grade data to longstanding chokepoints in drug development.
The assets behind the platform
MyLinks lets patients pull their longitudinal health records from all EHR systems into one place using HL7 FHIR standards, with across-silo auto-update features to mitigate against the risk of incomplete, stale data. Today, it connects patients to more than 79,000 clinics and labs in the United States. It won first place in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Consumer Health Data Aggregator Challenge. MyResearchLinks extends that infrastructure to research, providing a standards-based interoperability bridge for quality data to seamlessly travel to regulators and sponsors. BENTO adds direct-to-patient logistics and proprietary biospecimen collection, so members can contribute samples from home that stay linked to their records as those records grow.
Adding to its clinical operations infrastructure, BENTO now offers
• Recontactable, consented cohorts. Pre-phenotyped members who have agreed to be contacted again for surveys, new samples, or trial invitations, addressing one of drug development's most expensive bottlenecks, an providing infrastructure for platform and basket trial design for seamless trials of the future.
• Biospecimens linked to longitudinal outcomes. Samples paired with clinical records that keep flowing for as long as members stay engaged, supporting target discovery and biomarker validation.
• Curated, computable data with clear rights. Records from different EHRs normalized to standard terminologies, reconciled, labeled for outcomes, and tracked with full provenance, then licensed only under explicit patient consent.
• Clinical evaluation sets for AI. Curated, clinically validated benchmarks that AI developers can use to test and fine-tune models, an asset in short supply across health AI.
• Patient-generated context. Symptoms, function, preferences, and daily experience that EHRs miss, contributed by members directly.
•Global distribution and logistics. In partnership with Carahsoft, BENTO provides global supply chain management across clinical tools, with privacy-preserving logistics serving 172 markets.
"When I started building MyLinks, the goal was to put patients at the center of their own health data," said Debi Willis, founder of MyLinks. "Patients use MyLinks as a personal EHR that seamlessly aggregates data across their health history, gathering records scattered across dozens of systems. With BENTO MyLinks, those records come together with their samples and their own story, and patients decide, on their own terms, whether that helps find a treatment, power a study, or make health AI safer. That's interoperability finally reaching the people it was meant to serve."
"The most valuable thing in health research isn't any single data type. It's linkage: clinical records, biospecimens, and patient experience tied to the same engaged person over time, with the ability to go back to them," said Dr. Marnie Peterson, BENTO investor and two-time biotech founder. "That's what made UK Biobank so powerful, and it's what most commercial datasets lack. BENTO now has the pieces to build it in the U.S., with patients in control. For an industry gathering in Boston this week to talk about AI, this is the data foundation that has been missing."
What's next
BENTO will roll out the MyLinks integration in phases. It will begin with aggregate cohort queries for trial feasibility and consented trial invitations, then add specimen-linked studies, curated datasets, and clinical evaluation sets for AI developers.
The avatar as the engagement engine
Each member is represented by a pseudonymous avatar, a personal digital twin built from their own records and the information they choose to add. The avatar gives members ongoing personal value, which keeps them engaged.
Governed by programmable consent
Approved biopharma sponsors, public health agencies, life science entrepreneurs, and AI developers will reach the cohort through BENTO's API. They can size eligible populations using privacy-protecting aggregate counts, invite avatars into studies, and request data for a stated purpose. Members choose which purposes they support, such as trial matching, public health research, or AI development, and the platform enforces those choices automatically. Every API customer is verified, and use policies prohibit resale of member data.
BENTO leadership will be at the AIDDD Summit at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, October 27–29. Visit the BENTO | Carahsoft booth, or reach out directly: 301-651-6662.
About BENTO Biology Platforms
BENTO Biology Platforms Inc. is a clinical trial automation and patient empowerment company that removes chokepoints in translational science. BENTO has won numerous awards, including patient empowerment platform of the year, Federal 100, and the Pharma Whale Tank award for Study Conduct. With the acquisition of MyLinks, BENTO is building a recontactable, patient-consented cohort that links health records, biospecimens, and patient-reported experience over time.
About MyLinks
MyLinks is a patient-facing health data platform that lets individuals aggregate their medical records from across EHR systems using FHIR standards. Founded by Debi Willis, MyLinks won first place in HHS Consumer Health Data Aggregator Challenge, and Willis was named one of Health Data Management's "11 Leading Innovators in Healthcare IT."
For information, please give us a call: 855-440-2055