24.10.12
Public invited to aid cancer research
Cancer Research UK has created a citizen science project to speed up cancer research using public input and analysis.
A new website known as Cell Slider, turns real breast cancer data into a game of snap that can be analysed by members of the public, allowing more samples to be seen faster.
Users are asked to match cancer cells that have been stained yellow, indicating the levels of protein found on the surface of the cells. The information will be fed back to researchers looking for trends between types of cells and patients’ response to treatment.
If successful, the trial will be expanded to include different types of cancers.
Professor Paul Pharoah, a Cancer Research UK scientist from the University of Cambridge who helped develop the project said: “We’re really excited to be involved in this world-first project and we’re extremely eager to see what this can do for our research in the future.
“There is information that can transform cancer treatments buried in our data – we just need the manpower to unlock them. We’ve turned our data into something that can be accessed by anyone – you don’t have to be a scientist to carry out this type of cancer research. If we can get millions of people on Cell Slider, we hope to condense what normally takes years of research into months.
“Eventually, we hope to be able to identify different types of breast, and other, cancers and find out how these different types respond to different treatments. This will enable us to match up women with the right cancer drugs based on their tumour type.”
David Willetts, minister for universities and science, said: “Cell Slider is a really exciting and innovative project that will get the public involved in the fight against cancer. It’s another example of how the UK is one step ahead of the rest of the world in coming up with creative ways to solve scientific problems.”
To test how accurate the programme is, researchers will link the samples that have been flagged up by Cell Slider TM players with anonymised data on treatment and survival to see if it gives results they expect.
The programme was produced with Citizen Science Alliance and can be found at: www.clicktocure.net
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