By Julieta O’Flaherty

We tend to think of research as being carried out solely by scientists that have undergone 8+ years of training, working in experimental labs with dangerous chemicals and expensive equipment. Usually far beyond translation to the clinic. Whilst this is fundamental for research and science overall, there are many ways in which researchers can get involved with projects that are closer to the general public, and that have the power to positively affect society.

Citizen science projects are leading the way in helping curious and passionate minds get involved in science. The idea is to harness the power and data of the general public, to create large datasets that can be analysed in real time. Commitment levels vary, from a one-off to a more long-term arrangement and they cover various subjects, from wildlife surveys to the weather and your health.

Citizen Sensors

For example, here at Manchester, researchers developed the #BritainBreathing app. This is a citizen science project to investigate when, where and how allergy symptoms strike. They hoped that by using ‘citizen sensors’ and combining information with other datasets, like the weather and pollution, this would uncover secrets about seasonal allergies, like hay fever. In this project, citizens (A.K.A citizen sensors), across the U.K., regularly entered their allergy symptoms into the app. By analysing 20,278 well-being reports from app users, researchers were able to identify a strong relationship between the app-reported allergy symptoms from citizen sensors, and the number of allergy prescriptions issued, as mentioned in their published article. Researchers were also able to identify two distinct peaks in the allergy symptoms throughout the year, in April and in June, corresponding to tree and grass pollens, respectively. This project is an example of how the power of the public can be used to help make new and exciting scientific discoveries.

Electronic Medical Records

Another way researchers can involve the public in their research projects is by analysing patient medical histories. Through collaboration with clinicians, researchers can analyse large datasets called electronic medical records (EHRs). These data sources include information on diagnoses, prescriptions, demographics, disease activity, clinical outcomes, genotype and results from laboratory tests. In other words, EHRs contain all of a patient’s medical data, wrapped up in a pretty electronic bow. This gives researchers the opportunity to analyse real world data, and a lot of scientific discoveries can be made through them.

The University of Manchester has strong collaborative links with many health practices, namely; Salford Clinical Commissioning Group; Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust; The Christie; Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust; and the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. These links enable researchers to form fruitful collaborations that lead to incredible research being carried out.

For example, in collaboration with the University of York, The University of Manchester formed the Wearable Clinic. This is a project aimed to integrate data from wrist sensors and smartphones with EHRs, to monitor symptoms for schizophrenia and chronic kidney disease. Currently, the teams are developing algorithms, statistical models and software. They hope to improve patients’ lives through dynamic personal care plans that change according to the real world data received from wearable technologies. Thus, they hope to modernise healthcare, with the help of the public, to improve the lives of patients with chronic conditions.

Woodlice Detectives

Researchers at the University of Manchester, have also enlisted the help of the UK public to contribute to the data collection of a study involving woodlice. The Blue Woodlice Detectives project, aims to investigate woodlice infected with a particular virus, called iridovirus (which poses no threats to humans). This virus, forms crystals within an infected woodlouse’s tissue, and turns them a blue/purple colour, and sadly causes the infected woodlice to die within a week of infection. Researchers at Manchester have enlisted the general public to become ‘Woodlice detectives’.

“The general idea is for people to get out and try and find woodlice. Specifically, we are looking for blue woodlice which are infected with a virus and if people find one they can send it to us and we will study the virus.” said Dr Jones, the lead investigator of the project.

The study involves sending a picture and the location of blue woodlice. Woodlice detectives are also asked to send blue woodlice to their lab by post for further experimentation. The team of experts hope to use the infected woodlice to develop a test that will measure the effectiveness of a new antiviral material they have created. This novel compound would help destroy the viruses on contact and may thus be used against many other viruses, and help combat pandemics. By encouraging the public to become woodlice detectives, the researchers will be able to obtain a much larger sample size, that covers a larger geographical area, than they would have been able to obtain alone. This demonstrates how the general public can positively affect a project’s reach.

Citizen science projects can provide unexpected benefits for researchers. For example, it can help address research questions at a much larger scale. This is because participants from around the globe can take part remotely and in real time. Inputs from the general public can help shape your research questions that may lead to exciting new breakthroughs. Furthermore, involving the general public in research is a great way of sparking public interest in science and may even lead the public to influence science policy in the future. At the moment, there are hundreds of many more citizen science projects being carried out in the University, and beyond. To get involved and find out more, go to scistarter.org.