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Eureka Newsletter

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You can now automatically share data from your health devices as well as your online health records with many studies! This makes it easier than ever to contribute to discoveries.

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STUDY SPOTLIGHT 🔬
CCS Podcast #2: The Study and COVID Policy
After reading through your questions from our previous survey, we found many people were wondering, "How is my data from the study being used?" Join us in a discussion with our study team members Rita Hamad (UCSF Investigator) and Matt Brandner (Study Project Manager) about your data and how we plan to use it with COVID-related policy data (e.g. business closures, mask mandates) to help us learn from this Pandemic so that policy makers can make more informed decisions in the future.
Listen on Soundcloud
Want to hear more on this topic? Feel free to listen in on our recent Panel with Policy Makers on this topic: COVID-19 Policymaker Panel Discussion.

Have feedback or questions? Send us your questions.
STUDY SPOTLIGHT 🔬
BP Home Study Results
The BP Home study team published their findings on at-home blood pressure monitoring in a new manuscript. This study asked if using a “smart” Bluetooth blood pressure cuff that connects with a smartphone application led to a greater reduction in systolic blood pressure than using a standard, non-connected blood pressure cuff. A total of 2,101 participants enrolled and were randomly assigned to use either a standard or Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff to monitor their blood pressure at home. Participants were then sent a blood pressure monitor that corresponded with their assignment. Researchers then assessed participants’ reduction in systolic blood pressure at a clinic visit at baseline and at a 6-month follow-up visit. Notably, the intervention in this randomized, controlled trial (ie: the type of BP monitor) was delivered and monitored entirely via the Eureka app!
 
The analysis concluded that using a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff over a standard blood pressure device did not provide superior results for reducing systolic blood pressure at 6 months, though a reduction of about 10 mm Hg was found in both groups. Furthermore, the Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff group attained controlled blood pressure (<140/90 mm Hg) at a significant, though modestly higher, rate.
Read the publication
STUDY SPOTLIGHT 🔬
Laura Gao for NPR
COVID-19 Citizen Science helps identify people who may be “superdodgers” from COVID-19
Research from the COVID-19 Citizen Science Study was highlighted in an NPR article discussing the science behind people who have seemingly remained COVID symptom-free despite having had tested positive to the virus. The key is in a gene called HLA, which serves a critical function in determining how your body responds to an infection. By analyzing DNA from more than 1,400 people in the CCS study, they found that some people have a specific mutation in the HLA gene that allowed it to use past infections from common cold coronaviruses to stock up on an arsenal of antibodies and T cells that happened to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Because their body already has the tools on hand to fight the infection, people with this genetic mutation are able to avoid showing symptoms altogether despite testing positive.

This mutation is estimated to be quite common, where 1 in 10 people might have it, and among those who are asymptomatic, that probability rises to 1 in 5. These findings have been submitted to a journal and are pending peer review. Research is ongoing for the UCSF team to discover more genes that may contribute to asymptomatic infections.

You can read the full NPR article or listen here:
Read the article
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