Yes. All samples are tracked by a barcode and de-identified and coded on receipt at the University of California San Diego. You will be supplied with your barcode number. Other sites will not have your personally identifying information, nor will that personally identifying information be released on the internet. Sequence data, diet information, and other health information you provide will be checked for personally identifying details, which will be removed before release. All sequence data and de-identified information will be released on the internet and anyone will be able to access them. It is theoretically possible that you might be identifiable from your data (e.g. if there is only one person with your condition in your town), as outlined on the consent form, so if you have concerns about this possibility we recommend that either you not participate, or you let us know about your concerns so that we can make your data less detailed before release (e.g. by coding geographic information only to the state level).
I got my results, how can I interpret them?
A addendum is available that can help you with this process. To access it, log into your account then hover your mouse over “Participant Resources” on the left. Click on “How do I interpret my results?” in the box that pops up.
British Gut is a citizen science project which means we depend on your help be able to run this project. The contribution requested on registering is the minimum needed to cover the costs of processing the samples , extracting DNA and the sequencing analysis without running at a loss.
we are a research project and we cannot provide medical advice since our analysis is not meant to be a diagnosis of any kind. Please be advised that using a computer is necessary in order to submit a sample for analysis.
A perk, in terms of crowd funding campaigns, is something you receive back as a token of appreciation for donating to the campaign. In our case, the donation that participants make will go toward processing and analyzing their submitted sample. In return, participants will receive an individual report of what bacteria is found in their sample.
You will receive a bacterial profile of your sample and a general overview of how your profile compares to that of others in the project. What we are not able provide is medical advice, such as how you should change your diet or what microbes you might be lacking. We are ethically and legally prohibited from giving such advice as a research laboratory.
Yes, we are recruiting participants from all over Europe. We advise looking into the costs of shipping a sample back to our lab via expedited mail before signing up to ensure that the sample does not spend many days in transit which could affect the quality of the analysis.
