Biomedical research is often slow and incremental, but it can take a leap when someone uncovers a hidden connection. Today, one group of researchers is launching a crowdsourcing initiative to pave the way, by harnessing the efforts of lay volunteers who will scan papers for key terms to help create a powerful searchable database. This crowdsourcing curation campaign, dubbed Mark2Cure, is first reaching out to a particularly motivated crowd — the community of people affected by NGLY1 deficiency, a newly discovered genetic disorder.
Mark2Cure’s current project “is all about showing that the output of [volunteer] efforts is scientifically meaningful,” Su says.