Thank you!

The data collection phase of the "Spit for Science" project has come to an end. We are very pleased to announce that we far exceeded our initial goal of 10,000 participants and had an incredible 17,296 kids and teens take part in our study.

The success of this work is an example of what can be accomplished through a partnership between a museum like the Ontario Science Centre and an academic research institute like The Hospital for Sick Children. The behavioural, cognitive and genetic data that we have collected is like a library of science that will pay dividends for years and advance our understanding of normal cognitive development and of several common, impairing and costly psychiatric disorders named Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

The premise of our study is that ADHD and OCD are extremes that are widely distributed in the general population. For example, many individuals are easily preoccupied and worried about things, perfectionisitic, or engage in repetitive and habitual behaviours, etc. These traits may be harmless or even helpful when present to a mild degree, but lead to impairment in daily living if they are extreme. By comparing individuals at both extremes of a trait distribution (e.g.: the top and bottom 10%) we maximize our chances of finding genetic risk factors since the differences between groups is so great. At the Ontario Science Centre, our aim was to collect a large sample so that we would have sufficient numbers of individuals at the high and low ends of the trait distribution to compare to one another with regard to genomic variation.

This comparison would enable one to identify associations between specific genes and the traits we are studying. Identifying these gene-behaviour relationships will help identify key biological pathways underlying common and debilitating childhood onset psychiatric disorders.

We hope this research will represent a first step towards determining alternative and effective treatment strategies, early identification and prevention.

We thank all of the children and families who took the time to "Spit for Science" and have made our project a success. It's now off to the lab to hunt for genes!