Home Page Forums Darwin’s Ark 4 years and still waiting! Reply To: 4 years and still waiting!

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brittney logan
Keymaster

Hi Anna,

We understand you confusion. I am happy to help explain how the research works, and why there are still owners awaiting results.

Throughout the years, our research has been solely grant funded, and with those funds, we were able to sequence 2,000 of our Darwin’s Dog DNA samples that were generously provided by owners. Many of the samples had completed all of the behavioral surveys. This survey data was crucial to finding correlations between behavior and genetics and was a result of our recent publication.

Our goal is to sequenced ALL of the dogs enrolled with us, the more dogs with samples and behavioral data, the more there is to uncover and learn about our best friends. We wish we could sequence all of the samples we have on hand, but funding is certainly a limiting factor, and we are doing all that we can to keep applying.

We have not forgotten about the dogs that have not yet been sequenced, they are a huge priority of ours as it is valuable data just wait to been unearthed, and it is owners eagerly awaiting to better understand their dog.

Since funding can take time, we provided the option for owners to donate to have their dogs sample sequenced right away and avoid the wait. This of course is optional and participants are more than welcome to remain of the Free Participation Waitlist until we have additional funding to support them.

I hope this helps to explain why this research takes time. We certainly wish we could do it all at once, but are doing the best we can with what we currently have.

Thank you very much for enrolling your dog with us, we greatly appreciate your contributions to science!

Best,
Brittney