A quick update on the Sourdough Project! We are currently up to 300 samples (and counting) and we’ve got a fantastic team of undergraduates working on processing and characterizing our samples: Kinsey Drake, Nick Kamkari, and Shravya Sakunala.
Kinsey has made a map of our where the starters we have processed in the lab.
Kinsey Drake, Tufts undergraduate, works in the Wolfe lab processing samples for the Sourdough Project.
Please note that locations on the map have been anonymized and only show a central location based on zip/postal code.
It has been so encouraging and exciting to hear from you about your starters and we are looking forward to many more discoveries. Thanks to those of you in far off places, we’re looking at you New Zealand, for sending starters across datelines and hemispheres. If you know someone maintaining a starter who is living in a place without a pin, we’d love to fill in the map!
I am maintaining sour dough starter in Green Bay WI
That’s great! We are looking for more participants in WI — would you like to fill out the questionnaire and mail in a sample?
What if I filles in the questionnaire and sent in my sample but it’s not yet on your map?
Great question! I will do some sleuthing and send you an email shortly.
Hi Aaron, We update our map periodically so it’s not a live view. We will update it again shortly!
I completed the questionnaire and am trying to figure out how to get a sample to you. I live In rural Thailand and there is no way a mailed sample will get to you in five days.
And, why am I not on the map?
Hi Michael! Any guesses on how long it would take? I wonder if you feed immediately beforehand it would be ok? The only way to know is to try at this point!
Mail from here to the US generally takes about seven to ten days. I will buy a padded envelope today and send it next week right after I feed.
I’m still wondering why I’m not on the map.
My participant ID number is: 618
Hi there! We will update the map on Mondays — check back for your pin!
Well, it’s Tuesday and my pin still isn’t on the map….
I mailed my starter on my Friday, your Thursday. I hope it makes it.
Well, my pin is still not on the map.
I’m very curious. Did my starter arrive? Number 618
I too sent my sample off to you and it isn’t on the map. I’m sure it takes a lot of work to coordinate it all so my worries if it’s just not there yet. I just want to make sure my sample made it to you. If not I can send another! Great project!! I can’t wait to hear more about it! ~Jeremy (Sample #711)
Hi Jeremy! We will be updating the map on Monday, check back then! Thanks again for your participation!
Hi Lea, I’ve smuggled my North American starters with me to England and would like to send them to you but wonder how others have sent theirs from abroad so their starters arrive alive. Any lessons or suggestions?
Hi Eric! Freshly fed starters have been reported as arriving successfully — go ahead and send yours along, too! Love the story!
What’s going on here? Nearly three weeks since the last update.
I hope I am not the first (or only) person to have goofed on this!
Cheerfully, I sent off my sourdough sample on March 6, feeling that I had followed the instructions from the Bob Dunn lab. However,two days later, i realised that I had used the example ID number (29) instead of the number that was assigned to me in an email! I then sent an email to the Dunn lab to ask if the correct #765 number could be applied to the sample I had sent to the medford, MA address, but received no answer.
I couldn’t track my sample on the map. Do you have it? Do I need to send a new one ?
Eva Feder ( Participant # 765 )
Hello,
I Submitted my Sourdough and i believe my participant # is 776
Hello Lea, I have sent my sourdough, but I cannot track on the maps ” Your Participant ID is 142 — and according to the updated map it has been received and processed! ”
Thanks for a comunication
Giancarlo I Toso
Great to hear!!
Hi I would be really interested to know if bacterial diversity was affected by the grain used for the starter (wheat, rye,etc). Could the unexpected lack of diversity in bacteria be influenced by a lack of diversity in grains that both started and fed the cultures?
Lea, Yes, Could be great, but no mention on the map. So, what is happening?
have a good time!
I also filled out the questionnaire and sent in a sample; my participant number is 173 and I cannot find my pin. Thanks so much.
As Gilda Radner would say, “Never mind”; I found it!!! Thanks.
Hi Lea, I am a bit concerned, from a privacy point of view, that if you zoom in on the pins on the map it goes right down to a physical street address. While, in my case at least, this is not the correct one, I thought that it might have been more prudent to generalise the location to the nearest suburb centre or postcode. Some people might not want their physical address exposed and, also, others might not appreciate being approached on this basis if a nearby participant visited the ‘incorrect’ address, however well intentioned.
Thank you for your comment! We have just used city, state and zip to generate the location on the map. The location of the dot is centered on the zip code (an arbitrary place on the map). No physical addresses of our participants are exposed or shared with others.
Why is the map which is linked from the main page of the Rob Dunn Lab (which introduces/explains The Sourdough Project)
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1JT4BDmJL6Q-QMV06Zi8JmGbAjJg&ll=18.9779559711235%2C-116.49067890000003&z=2
not updated with the same information as the map available to the closed Facebook group? The last update was April 26 2017. Our passed-down starter is a big part of our family lore, and I’d like to share the map with family members who are not part of the closed Facebook group.
Thank you — great catch! We’ve replaced the link with the more updated one!