Worm Watch Lab

PROJECT

Url:http://www.wormwatchlab.org/
Start date: 2013/06/30
End date: Still open
Infrastructure: Zooniverse

TEAM

Official team page:http://www.wormwatchlab.org/#/team
Leader:
Institution: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
Partner institutions: Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of the Medical Research Council Centenary year programme, Medical Research Foundation
Contact: team@zooniverse.org
Main location: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK

PROJECT DEFINITION

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Subject

Medical and health sciences > biology, genetics, medicine, neuroscience (biology/medicine/neuroscience)

Description

We need the public’s help in observing the behaviour of tiny nematode worms. When you classify on wormwatchlab.org you’re shown a video of a worm wriggling around. The aim of the game is to watch and wait for the worm to lay eggs, and to hit the ‘z’ key when they do.

Purpose.

By watching these worms lay eggs, you’re helping to collect valuable data about genetics that will assist medical research by helping us understand how the brain works and how genes affect behaviour.

Research question.

The idea is that if a gene is involved in a visible behaviour, then mutations that break that gene might lead to detectable behavioural changes. The type of change gives us a hint about what the affected gene might be doing. Although it is small and has far fewer cells than we do, C. elegans has almost as many genes and because we share a common ancestor even with worms, many of them are closely related to human genes. This presents us with the opportunity to study the function of genes that are important for human brain function in an animal that is easier to handle, great for microscopy and genetics, and has a generation time of only a few days.

ABOUT PARTICIPANT TASKS

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Tasks description.

When you classify on wormwatchlab.org you’re shown a video of a worm wriggling around. The aim of the game is to watch and wait for the worm to lay eggs, and to hit the ‘z’ key when they do.

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Grey typology	Participation typology	Contribution type:
Computing: NO Thinking: NO Sensing: NO Gaming: NO	Crowdsourcing ☐ Distributed intelligence ☐ Participatory science ☐ Extreme citizen science ☐ Science outreach ☐	Data collection ☐ Data analysis ☑ Data interpretation ☐--------
Gaming
Genre:	Gaming elements:
Interface
Data type to manipulate: other	interface enjoyment: Interface usability: easy to use	Member profiles::N/A Member profile elements:

ABOUT GUIDANCE AND FEEDBACK

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Guidance	Feedback on
Tutorial and documentation: SOMEWHAT Training sequence: SOMEWHAT Peer to peer guidance: SOMEWHAT	individual performance: Somewhat collective performance: Somewhat research progress: Somewhat

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COMMUNITY

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Tools	News & Events
Communication: website, blog, other Social Network: Twitter, Facebook	Main news site: http://blog.wormwatchlab.org/ Frequency of project news updates: less than weekly Type of events: Frequency of events :
Community description
Community size (volounteers based): Role: Interaction form: Has official community manager(s): N/A Has team work N/A

Other information about community:
Community led additions:

OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION

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Screen Shot 2013-11-15 at 11.51.05.png Yes [[has completion level::Medium]

http://www.wormwatchlab.org/#/team

MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK team@zooniverse.org

Yes biology, genetics, medicine, neuroscience Medical and health sciences biology/medicine/neuroscience By watching these worms lay eggs, you’re helping to collect valuable data about genetics that will assist medical research by helping us understand how the brain works and how genes affect behaviour. The idea is that if a gene is involved in a visible behaviour, then mutations that break that gene might lead to detectable behavioural changes. The type of change gives us a hint about what the affected gene might be doing. Although it is small and has far fewer cells than we do, C. elegans has almost as many genes and because we share a common ancestor even with worms, many of them are closely related to human genes. This presents us with the opportunity to study the function of genes that are important for human brain function in an animal that is easier to handle, great for microscopy and genetics, and has a generation time of only a few days. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Worm Watch Lab When you classify on wormwatchlab.org you’re shown a video of a worm wriggling around. The aim of the game is to watch and wait for the worm to lay eggs, and to hit the ‘z’ key when they do. data analysis

other, other: videos Thinking: no Computing: no Sensing: no Gaming: no

easy to use N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

N/A

N/A website, blog, other Twitter, Facebook

http://blog.wormwatchlab.org/

less than weekly

N/A

Medium

BIBLIOGRAPHY