Improved Protocol - Resubmitted IRB

In the last few weeks, I've been in touch with a few professors, both here at UC Berkeley and also microbiome researchers at MIT to discuss the significance and logistics of running this study. The feedback has been very positive overall and we believe the project will both be impactful and exciting to conduct.

One of the main concerns we've received from both backers and scientists have been whether or not three days on Soylent is sufficient to observe a change in the microbiome. The answer is yes, as multiple studies have shown the microbiome to react very quickly to drastic changes in diet. However, we've now decided to reallocate the uBiome sequencing kits to fund one less participant, but increase the number of Soylent days by one, giving us 4 days on Soylent. In addition, we've added more detailed survey questions for participants. This will allow us to more confidently assess the changes to the microbiome and use our funding more effectively.

Given these changes, we’ve revised our IRB. Since reviews take between 3-6 weeks, we will be moving the project back to early Fall 2016. Our team will spend the summer organizing all of the logistics in preparation to launch the study during the next semester on campus.