Thank you!!!!

Hi all,

Wow!!! The LilBUBome crowdfunding is over. We have to admit that these last 40 days of fundraising (and the previous days of preparation) have been quite exhausting - but also unbelievably exciting. This was our first experience with crowdfunding, and we always had the fear of not getting funded. Not because of the money, but because it would have meant that we did not manage to explain how amazingly interesting this project is. So we are really glad to have finally reached our goal (and a little bit more), and about all the positive feedback we have received!

 

A BIG THANK YOU goes undoubtedly to the 248 backers who decided to join the project. We appreciate not only your support but also your interaction with us. All of you contributed to achieve the first essential part of this project. And now it is our turn!!!!!

So, what´s next?

We will have a gap of a few days when the funds will be transferred to us. After that, we need to prepare LilBUB´s DNA sample, so it is suitable for sequencing. These processes, sample preparation and sequencing, would take some time (approx. 1 month). But don´t be afraid, new lab notes will be released, where we will explain step by step how these 2 processes work ;-)

We are also figuring out how to get the most science out of the additional money we raised. This does not affect the sequencing of BUB's genome at all. We simply want to ensure that those "extra" funds are invested in a way that will help us learn more about BUBs genome and ideally contribute to feline health in general. We are currently talking to some experts to clarify the details, but we will inform you as soon as a final decision is made. Please bear with us, this might take a a week or so.

And after all that, we will finally get our first REAL data that we can start to look at!!!

As a final request, we ask all of you to continue following our progress. From the beginning, we conceived the LilBUBome project as a crosstalk platform with the interested public - that's all of YOU reading this! Therefore, we would like to know your opinion, ideas or suggestions at every moment, so we can make everything transparent and understandable.

And how Frank Sinatra used to say:

The best is yet to come!!!!

PS. In case you know someone who really wanted to contribute, but missed their chance: it is still possible to donate to our sister project, the 99 Cat Lives at the University of Missouri. And of course there's always LilBUB's BIG Fund, where you can give to help homeless pets with special needs.