CALIFORNIA: University of Michigan has started a program to discover cures for the diseases and illness that have been haunting the humans for ages. The project is called ‘Genes for Good’ and the researchers working on the project have decided to partner with Facebook – the biggest online social network in the world. The researchers want Facebook users to participate in the research and have developed a Facebook App to help collect information from the users. The Genes for Good project promises that your data won’t be read by Facebook and will be used for research purpose only.
In order to participate in the study the eligibility criteria requires you to be over 18 years, a citizen of USA and have an account on Facebook. The study will be done through the Facebook App in the form of easy surveys. All you will have to do is respond to periodic questionnaires about your health. You may also volunteer to provide your saliva to the researchers through the mail. The researchers will extract DNA and perform scientific analysis on it. Researchers aim to establish link between health information and DNA do find out genes that affect the risk for any disease.
Once you complete every survey, you will be able to view your own results and summary of the study done so far on other individuals. The surveys will include questions about your health, habits, attitudes, relationships etc. Project leader from the University of Michigan, Gonalo Abecasis said that they hope that people will volunteer to participate in the study. If you are excited about ‘Genes for Good’ project and want to participate, head over to the official project page linked in the source below. All the best!
