Can genetics settle the Marmite debate?
Is it all in your genes?
Just to get a disclosure out of the way, I think Marmite is really gross. Most people (if they live in the United Kingdom) have tried Marmite and have a strong opinion on the issue. To some, the brown yeasty spread is a critical part of a great breakfast, spread over toast with melted butter, while others just shake their head in disgust.
Recently, a group of researchers ran a study that identified a genetic variant that had a huge impact on whether an individual loves or hates Marmite. People with one version of the genetic variant were more than 8 times more likely to hate Marmite than those with the other version.
One important aspect of discoveries in genetics (and science in general!) is that findings need to be replicated by independent groups. Even more so for this particular study, because it was pretty small by genetics standard (261 people, where most studies collect thousands these days). So we are going to try to test their findings in less than 72 hours by crowdsourcing data through Heterogeneous from people who already have genetic data from 23andMe.
How it works:
1. Make an account on Heterogeneous.co.uk/signup — it only takes two minutes.
2. Add your 23andMe data to your account — don’t worry, we are not here to steal your data. Heterogeneous’ mission is to build a user-centric research platform, so you always own your data and choose how it is used.
3. Go to the ‘participate’ section on your dashboard and click the Marmite study! Anyone who participates will be acknowledged in the research when we publish it online and we will send you the results (in a way that makes sense, another part of our mission). Once you have signed up (step 1) you can also just visit heterogeneous.co.uk/study/marmite.
We are going to shoot for 300 people to run the study! We would love your help making it possible — share with your friends who love/hate Marmite!
Thanks for being part of the Heterogeneous community and let us know if you have any questions or ideas!
