Update on the free genotypings and new features on openSNP

The free genotypings

This night the deadline for free genotypings passed, and we are overwhelmed by the amount of responses. In less than 24 hours after the first blog post over 200 people sent us their applications, and in total over 450 people applied. For us the real work now begins, and we will do our best to go through all the applications, select the most interesting, and then contact every applicant. 

 

Entering Phenotypes

We also used the past weeks to implement some more features into openSNP. This time we focused on end-users entering their data into openSNP, especially on entering phenotypic variations. Entering a lot of phenotypes was a bit cumbersome and took too much time. Now, registered users will find a subtle change to their dashboard: The tab which shows phenotypes you haven’t yet provided now features a small button that allows you to easily fill in your information.

 A modal window (like the one in the screenshot above) will appear and you can choose your variation from the list of already known answers, or you can choose to add a new one. This should make entering data a lot faster. 

 

Phenotype Recommendations

We also added a recommendation engine for phenotypes, which can be found on individual phenotype pages. An additional tab will show you which phenotypes have most frequently also been entered by users who have entered variations on the page you are looking at. 

Additionally, you can use this system to get recommendations about similar phenotypes and even variations. If you enter your variation for a phenotype through the old phenotype view you will get a similar picture to this: 

 The top row shows you up to three phenotypes and the variation which is often entered by users who have provided similar variations to you. So lets’s say you’ve just entered that your Body Mass Index is above 30, the system might point out that people with this variation frequently have entered that they have a high blood pressure. 

 

The lower row shows you up to three phenotypes which are often entered by users who have entered any information about similar phenotypes as you, irrespective of the variation provided. For example, if you’re interested in visible traits and have just provided information about your eye colour you will see that people who are interested into this also provide information about their hair and skin colour. 

 

Given the rising numbers of different phenotypes which you can enter in openSNP, this should help you to find those that are of interest of you. You might have noticed that you wont get those recommendations if you are using the new quick-entry-feature on your dashboard. Our reasoning for this: Using the dashboard you can enter a large amount of variation in rapid succession. Here, displaying recommendations after each phenotype entered would slow you down. But if you like to “browse” and don’t want to rapidly enter large amounts of data, you might benefit from having some recommendations what might also be of interest for you. 

 

How do you feel about this? Would you like to see an option to get those recommendations also after entering variation using the dashboard?