quality of life for people affected by this devastating bone cancer of the skull and spine.
Currently, no effective chemotherapies exist, and a lack of valid chordoma cell lines is preventing the development of new treatments. The Chordoma Foundation needs your help to assemble a panel of well-characterized chordoma cell lines that can be shared with researchers and companies across the world. Cell lines in this panel should represent the diverse set of clinical manifestations of the disease, including chordomas of the skull-base and spine from primary, recurrent, and metastatic tumors from adult and pediatric patients.
The Chordoma Foundation will award a $10,000 prize for each cell line that is determined by the Chordoma Foundation to meet the requirements listed in the Detailed Description and Technical Requirements. The prize will be made as an unrestricted award to your institution to be used for scientific and educational application. In return for the award, Solvers and their institutions are expected to grant rights to the Chordoma Foundation to freely use, store and distribute the cell lines for all research and development purposes. The terms of the grant of rights are included in the Challenge-Specific Agreement for this Challenge. If required by your institution, the Chordoma Foundation also will work with you to execute an appropriate material transfer agreement to govern sharing of your cell line.
Discover how to submit your cell lines in the Detailed Description and Technical Requirements for the Challenge.
Sound Around You Project
I am building a sound map of the world as part of a study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel. We need your help!
We’re asking people across the world to use our new iOS app on their iPhones or iPads (or any recorder) to record short clips from different sound environments, or "soundscapes"--anything from the inside of a family car to a busy shopping centre. Then we ask volunteers to comment on their soundscapes and upload them to our virtual soundscape map.
Recordings and responses will be analyzed by acoustic scientists, and significant findings will be reported on this website.
Sound Around You aims to raise awareness of how our soundscape influences us, and could have far reaching implications for professions and social groups ranging from urban planners to house buyers.
RNA World is a distributed supercomputer that uses Internet-connected computers to advance RNA research. This system is dedicated to identify, analyze, structurally predict, and design RNA molecules on the basis of established bioinformatics software in a high-performance, high-throughput fashion.
The RNA World project is based at the Rechenkraft research facility located in Germany.
Donate your DNA to science! If you have used genetic testing services such as 23andMe or Navigenics, you can offer your genetic data to DIYgenomics for a variety of medical studies.
DIYgenomics is now recruiting participants for its first study, which will examine the effect of a common mutation on vitamin B metabolism.
In a gene called the MTHFR gene, two small mutations prevent vitamin B9 (or folic acid) from being metabolized into its active form (folate). People who lack this form of vitamin B may develop nutritional deficiencies and symptoms associated with diabetes complications, including damage to blood vessels and nerves. Up to 60% of people may have some form of MTHFR mutation.
Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication, and Health (BEACH)
BEACH volunteers monitor high-risk Washington state beaches for bacteria. Beaches are considered high-risk when they have a lot of recreational users and are located near potential bacteria sources.
Monitoring can indicate pollution from sewage treatment plant problems, boating waste, malfunctioning septic systems, animal waste, or other sources of fecal pollution. BEACH volunteers monitor for an indicator bacteria called "enterococci." The presence of this bacteria at elevated levels means there is a potential for disease-causing bacteria and viruses to also 