This document outlines three briefs for developing citizen science games and apps to help accelerate cancer research. The goals are to 1) speed up pathologists' analysis of tumor images, 2) accelerate genetic analysis of tumor data, and 3) develop an effective communications strategy around citizen science for cancer research. Example tumor and genetic data is provided. The challenges are to create engaging apps and games that can attract hundreds of thousands of users to help analyze real cancer research data and provide insights to researchers. Issues around visual engagement, game elements, user motivation, and integrating learning are discussed.

1.
Collaborating to Beat Cancer
Open Labs - Come and help Cancer Research UK to beat cancer
Imagine a world where 100,000s of people playing a simple game-based app on their
smartphones or social networks or computers were at the same time analysing data and
helping to beat cancer. Think Citizens Science meets Angry Birds.
Together with Cancer Research UK and the Citizens Science Alliance, we’re
delighted to be embarking on an ambitious collaborative Good for
Nothing experiment – Open Labs – taking place at The Science Museum over the
weekend of 18, 19, 20 May.
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Our challenge is to develop a simple, but addictive app with game elements that
would enable hundreds of thousands of supporters in the UK to help beat cancer...
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We want to create something that when playing, will analyse real data, from real
cancer patients, leading to real results and real breakthroughs in the development of
personalised medicine. By analysing data faster, we can get knowledge to doctors
faster, and they in turn can treat people more successfully. Put simply, playing this
game really could save lives.
So what’s happened so far?
To kick things off, Cancer Research UK put out a call to their community of 4000+
research scientists for ideas with the potential to unlock genuine research bottlenecks
and tackle meaningful research challenges
2 different ideas have emerged as 2 of the briefs for our challenge. Chris Lintott and
his team from Citizen Science Alliance are opening up their APIs to help focus a
rapid 48 hour blast of collaborative developing, making and doing.
The 3rd challenge is how to communicate the idea of citizen science for cancer
research to the great British public.
As well as a team of some of the UK and world’s leading cancer research scientists,
Chris will be with us for the weekend, to help bring the massive expertise and
insight they’ve gained from the groundbreaking Galaxy Zoo, Planet Hunters and
rapidly expanding family of Zooniverse projects.
Why citizen science and cancer research?
Personalised treatment is poised to revolutionise cancer treatment.
Every person’s cancer is unique – and their cancer treatment should be too.
Tests that reveal the genetic make-up of a patient’s cancer can help doctors to tailor
the treatment accordingly.

2.
That means patients will get the RIGHT treatment, first time, with fewer intolerable
side effects which could have a major impact on survival rates
To develop these tests – and the personalised medicine – we need to decode genetic
information. And stunning advances in technology mean we can do this faster than
ever.
But it still requires analysis of huge amounts of genetic data by real people that
cannot be left to computers alone. Analysis that researchers at top universities are
doing every day; looking for patterns, exceptions and abnormalities. This job needs
human intuition and the human eye. And that’s why it takes so much time.
But with the collective power of hundreds of thousands of people, and their eyes, we
could speed up this research by years, and save lives.
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Brief #1: Accelerating pathologists analysis of tumours
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The outline idea
Each year, thousands of patients take part in clinical trials, providing precious
tumour samples - each one offering vital clues as to why a patient’s treatment did or
didn’t work.
A game that ‘scores’ tumour samples on a grid like the one shown would accelerate
this analysis to benefit patients faster.
Each dot above is a tiny tumour sample stained for a specific marker. People would
be asked to score the samples depending on what markers they can see.
A typical trial could generate up to 18,000 of these dots to analyse for up to 20
different markers - a task that will take years without additional help.
By playing the game, you’ll build up a bank of knowledge to help doctors
personalise treatment and transform the outlook for women with breast cancer

3.
The key issues
There is a genuine backlog of research that upon proper analysis could yield all sorts
of insights and breakthroughs. This would accelerate research and free up scientists
to tackle other less routine issues
There are a number of different ways in which people could analyse tumours
ranging from assessing the colour intensity, to sizing the proportion of tumour
stained to looking for irregularities. In each case, a basic introductory level of
training is needed which would become part of the game/application.
The challenge
The overall challenge is to build a set of prototypes for the app and training module -
using technology, gaming, design, social web and communications expertise to see
what awesome ideas emerge….
What we’re looking for…
• A game or application with a user interface that has the potential to get
hundreds of thousands of people engaged and actively helping to get
through the research backlog
• Has broad appeal across a wide range of people – from school kids to
grandparents, not just hardcore gamers
• Works across platforms (online, mobile)
• Has a mechanism in it that encourages and rewards involvement/sharing
• Has a competitive element that makes the whole experience immersive
• Packaged in a way that makes it easy, fun and engaging
• Supported by insights into users, scientists and cancer patients
Potential data-sets
We have samples from 3000 women on a landmark breast cancer trial. The trial is
testing the best way to treat women in their 20s and 30s with the disease. This will be
demonstrated as part of the briefings.
Each data set consists of high resolution images that sit on a server to be pulled
forward for analysis. The data exists within an online SQL database as well as a
sample set of data that we’ve put into Dropbox for people to use alongside the CSI
platform API.
Lead scientists
Andy Hanby, Diana Wheeler and Paul Pharoah
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Brief #2: Accelerating genetic analysis of tumours
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The outline idea
Every person’s cancer is made up of a unique combination of genetic faults - a
genetic ‘signature’. New technology means we can analyse these genetic signatures
from thousands of patients faster than ever - churning out petabytes of data.

4.
Results like those below, which show changes in the levels of some genes, would
benefit from human analysis in addition to current automated processes.
The data above shows changes in the amount of genetic material. Gamers would be
looking for regions such as the one in the middle where the level changes sharply.
Changes in level across many tumour samples would help to locate important
cancer-causing gene faults. Not all the changes in our genes cause cancer. But by
taking part & spotting the subtleties a computer can’t, you could be the one to find a
breakthrough cancer-causing mutation. It’s a game of chance but the stakes are high.
The key issues
The current mechanism for analysing data is through sophisticated algorithms that
predict the genetic sequence in and around the mutations.
The way the algorithms work means that some important parts of the genetic
sequence in and around the mutations are less accurately predicted.
There is a real need to do more exploratory work on this, as the rate at which data is
being produced, means that adding a human element to the algorithmic analysis
could yield new and important findings.
The challenge
The overall challenge is to build a set of prototypes for the app and training module -
using technology, gaming, design, social web and communications expertise to see
what awesome ideas emerge….
What we’re looking for…
• A game or application with a user interface that has the potential to get
hundreds of thousands of people engaged and actively helping to get
through the research backlog
• Has broad appeal across a wide range of people – from school kids to
grandparents, not just hardcore gamers
• Works across platforms (online, mobile)
• Has a mechanism in it that encourages and rewards involvement/sharing
• Has a competitive element that makes the whole experience immersive

5.
• Packaged in a way that makes it easy, fun and engaging
• Supported by insights into users, scientists and cancer patients
Potential data-sets
Data exists within the public domain that can be used to build a working prototype.
We will have a set of data available on Dropbox and it will be demonstrated as part
of the briefings.
There are no working standards yet for this type of data – most data sets existing in
BED format or compatible format for viewing in the Integrative Genomics Viewer –
an open source piece of software.
Lead scientist
Andy Lynch
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Brief #3: How do we engage the wider public in the idea of citizen science for cancer
research?
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The idea of citizen science is unique and a relatively new concept for most people
so how do we best communicate it to get the highest possible appeal and uptake?
This is a free-range challenge that we’d love to have people work on to tackle the
issue of communications approach and strategy for this initiative – overall and for
the individual ideas as they start to emerge and develop over the weekend.
The primary audience is the great British public, but given the aim to make this go as
big as possible, how can we best talk to potential technology partners and even other
brands to get them involved in making this happen?
Pro-bono public research into citizen science and cancer research just in gives us
some insights to start from and will be available as input for everyone to use.
We also know that the citizen science community that Chris has built is science
attentive but not specialists e.g. amateur astronomers – they’re curious, educated,
motivated by taking part in research, doing something and making a contribution.
So this brief is really all about immersing ourselves in creating a communications
strategy, approach and supporting assets that will help to accelerate this idea into
execution.
Key questions
Who’s the audience(s) for cancer research citizen science?
For each key audience, what’s the proposition that will hook them to get involved?
What key messages will engage them - both overall and with the specific
application/platform being developed?
How might we best package the idea up visually as a concept/identity?
How do we best communicate/ launch it e.g. in terms of a challenge?

6.
Potential outputs
A communications strategy and campaign for citizen science for Cancer Research UK
Supporting assets e.g. vox-pops from potential audience, mash-up films, mood-
film/animation/storyboard, branding ideas and identities, pitch presentations ….etc
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Some stuff to think about for all the challenges….
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Visual
engagement
Pictures
of
galaxies
are
interesting.
Tumour
images/genetic
profiles
maybe
less
so.
How
can
we
present
data
in
an
engaging
way
to
the
user?
How
do
we
best
present
results
back
to
the
users?
How
do
we
best
present
results
back
to
the
community
• Can
we
bring
in
different
colours
and
visual
elements
within
the
data?
• How
might
we
frame/create
context
and
a
learning
experience
around
the
data?
• How
do
we
best
package
and
wrap
the
idea
up
visually
ie
graphic
design,
user
interface,
user
experience
as
part
of
a
bigger
challenge?
Game-­‐like
elements/playability/sociability
Making
it
too
much
like
a
game
reduces
the
quality
of
classifications
–
good
people
leave
as
the
motivations
shift
from
quality
to
quantity.
• Positioned
as
a
game,
is
it
engaging
enough?
• What
game-­‐like
elements
and
mechanics
might
encourage
repeat
use?
• How
can
we
bring
in
social
elements
into
the
experience
so
that
people
can
share
what
they’ve
done
and
encourage
others
to
get
involved
too
e.g.
groups
of
family/friends/colleagues?
• At
what
point
might
users
have
something
meaningful
to
share?
Profile/rewards/motivation
How
do
we
build
in
elements
that
reward
and
keep
people
motivated
whilst
maintaining
quality
of
interaction?
What
kind
of
measures
of
activity
are
meaningful
and
will
keep
engagement
high?
Frequency
of
doing
it,
accuracy
of
response,
depth
of
activity
etc
Can
we
frame/visualise
the
data
being
classified
in
terms
of
a
big
challenge?
How
do
we
visualize
the
reduction
of
the
backlog
of
data?
Learning
by
doing
People
tend
to
stop
because
they
don’t
know
if
they
are
doing
it
properly
-­‐>
“I’m
doing
science,
what
if
I
get
it
wrong,
am
I
the
only
one
going
to
rate
this
data?”
Context
is
critical
–
what
am
I
looking
at
and
what
does
it
mean
What
could
the
initial
sign-­‐up,
information
and
learning
tutorial
look
like?
What
kind
of
things
do
we
need
to
do
to
reassure
people
at
different
stages
and
give
them
feedback?
What
kind
of
interactivity/place
to
talk
about
their
observers
can
we
build
to
connect
users
with
others
looking
at
same
picture?