In order to know what a Citizen Scientist may need to contribute to a research meeting, it is helpful to understand the nature of the content discussed, and the dynamics of, team research meetings. In this series, you will first watch an introduction to help lay the groundwork for the meeting. Then, you will see a behind-the-scenes view of a research meeting during which data, decision making, and progress to date are reviewed by the team.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how research meetings foster collaboration
- Propose how Citizen Scientists can potentially contribute to similar meetings
Background and Context
For these types of research meetings, a Citizen Scientist would typically have prior knowledge of the topic or disease. As this meeting skips that step, some background information about the disease discussed in the video is below. This information will provide context as you watch the video:
- Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS) is a type of cancer triggered by immunodeficiency in those with the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV).
- Because all KS tumors are caused by KSHV, there is no healthy “control” sample of a tumor without the virus to compare to, and it will be tough to figure out which treatments may have an impact.
- KSHV can be dormant, or latent, in the body for a long time while prompting cell growth that will lead to cancer.