In the hopes of discovering life-saving medications, a group of scientists led by biologist Stephen Friend have launched the Resilience Project, which aims to identify people whose DNA are carriers of potentially life-threatening childhood diseases but never manifested the illness. They wish to find out how some rare abnormality in their gene structure could have protected them from the disease and use this to create a roadmap that could be used to come up with a cure.
For this study, Dr. Friend and his team needs 1 million healthy volunteers to donate cheeks flops and submit them for analysis. The research team will then test these samples in the hopes of identifying genomic evidence for 125 of the most debilitating childhood illnesses.
Most of the people who chose to participate in the Resilience Project believe that scientific projects such as this are important for advancing the human species. One donor, Juhan Sonin, said that, "Ultimately, if we move towards stage-zero detection of illness, then we can concentrate on life rather than worrying about health, healthcare, and security. It sounds cheesy and scary-and it is a little-but by diving deeper into genetics in this way, we stand a chance of fighting disease before we even have symptoms. And I'm excited to be a part of that, in some small way." Each volunteer will get a detailed report of what their DNA reveals and how it can help further study.
Researchers are urging more people to donate their DNA, but many are unsure about doing so. To them, Mr. Sonin says, "getting involved in genetic projects like this is about being in touch with your body and having a better grasp of how it works-less denial, more understanding."
Mr. Sonin is a 42-year-old software designer from Boston, Massachusetts who believes that being able to step up in this way is his contribution in help to create a future where illnesses can be treated even before symptoms arise.