This very recently launched crowdfunding site is a spin-off venture [1] of the Bay Area based Buck Institute for Research on Aging [2].<p>A bunch of people (such as the folk at experiment.com ) are in search of the magic bullet that makes KickStarter-like crowdfunding work well for research. I don't think a straight port can work, as the incentives and motivations are all very different. But I'm optimistic that someone will find the magic recipe that will open the floodgates.<p>This is an age of distintermediation, and crowdfunding seems like something that will inevitably take over a chunk of the sort of research fundraising that presently flows through big per-disease charities. But do people who go beyond a nebulous support for curing a specific disease really want to pick and choose projects, or are they happier rooting for teams? If the latter, science crowdfunding may inevitably shift in the direction of a LabCures-like approach.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_26246445/new-buck-institute-spinoff-will-use-internet-solicit" rel="nofollow">http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_26246445/new-buck-institute...</a><p>[2]: <a href="http://www.buckinstitute.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.buckinstitute.org/</a>