OHSU vending machine dispenses DNA kits to study cancer risk

PORTLAND, Ore. – Some special vending machines are starting to pop up in parts of Oregon.

These are not your typical vending machines. You won’t find chips, crackers or sodas in them. It’s part of the “Healthy Oregon Project” that started just a few months ago.

Down on the South Waterfront at the Knight Cancer Research Center, tucked away near the elevators, you can’t miss the red and white vending machine. Of all things, why a vending machine?

Oregon Health and Science University Professor Jackilen Shannon said, “For us, we didn’t want to do all the mailing. So instead we decided, let’s put it in a vending machine.”

The unique tool will let researchers learn how behaviors, lifestyle and genetics play a part in a person’s risk for cancer.

Professor Shannon explained, “Really, what that’s telling you is: do you have a particular genetic mutation that may put you at a higher risk of cancer than the rest of the population?”

Taking the test is pretty simple. They’re free for starters. Walk up to the machine, push the code for the kit and it drops down. There’s a vial to put the sample in, and a thing of mouthwash. Set a timer for 60 seconds, swish the mouthwash and spit. Download the app, scan the barcode on the vial and you’re done. Return it to the machine and let OHSU researchers do the rest.

Professor Shannon said, “For researchers, it gives us information from our population that help us begin to answer questions about why there might be at a higher risk of particular risk of diseases within one group of the population, versus a different group.”

But if you’re not a high risk for cancer or maybe you don’t have a family history, OHSU says: take the test anyway.

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