Online game hopes to find AIDS cure
Video game players from around the world collaborate to solve biological puzzles
Video game players from around the world recently solved a puzzle that baffled scientists for more than fifteen years — and they did it in less than 10 days, reports ESA.
Using an online game developed by researchers at the University of Washington called Foldit, a team of 35 citizen-scientists dubbed "The Contenders" collaborated to decipher the molecular structure of an enzyme that is responsible for the spread of AIDS in rhesus monkeys. This discovery provides important information that will help medical researchers design retroviral drugs to stop the AIDS virus in its tracks.
In order for medical researchers to develop drugs such as these that can tackle an enzyme, a type of complex protein that catalyzes specific biochemical reactions in the body, they must first understand the enzyme's structure. However, with the millions of possible configurations of an enzyme's atoms and bonds, this task can take years and often stumps even the world's most accomplished scientists.
The University of Washington team saw an opportunity to capitalize on the enthusiasm surrounding collaborative game play to create a human "supercomputer" that could uncover these protein structures more quickly. Foldit enlists the help of gamers worldwide and challenges players to fold virtual protein molecules into different formations to obtain the highest-scoring, or lowest-energy, models. The monkey-virus puzzle is just one of several scientific mysteries on Foldit.
"Foldit shows that a game can turn novices into domain experts capable of producing first-class scientific discoveries," said Dr. Zoran Popovic, director of University of Washington's Center for Game Science. "We are currently applying the same approach to change the way math and science are taught in school."
Since its release in 2008, more than 236,000 players from a variety of backgrounds have registered and collaborated to solve molecular puzzles that could have important implications on science and medicine. The Contender's winning enzyme model was the second Foldit discovery to be published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and researchers predict two more breakthroughs in the near future.
You can tap into your own puzzle-solving skills and help advance scientific research by playing Foldit at http://fold.it/portal/puzzles.
Using an online game developed by researchers at the University of Washington called Foldit, a team of 35 citizen-scientists dubbed "The Contenders" collaborated to decipher the molecular structure of an enzyme that is responsible for the spread of AIDS in rhesus monkeys. This discovery provides important information that will help medical researchers design retroviral drugs to stop the AIDS virus in its tracks.
In order for medical researchers to develop drugs such as these that can tackle an enzyme, a type of complex protein that catalyzes specific biochemical reactions in the body, they must first understand the enzyme's structure. However, with the millions of possible configurations of an enzyme's atoms and bonds, this task can take years and often stumps even the world's most accomplished scientists.
The University of Washington team saw an opportunity to capitalize on the enthusiasm surrounding collaborative game play to create a human "supercomputer" that could uncover these protein structures more quickly. Foldit enlists the help of gamers worldwide and challenges players to fold virtual protein molecules into different formations to obtain the highest-scoring, or lowest-energy, models. The monkey-virus puzzle is just one of several scientific mysteries on Foldit.
"Foldit shows that a game can turn novices into domain experts capable of producing first-class scientific discoveries," said Dr. Zoran Popovic, director of University of Washington's Center for Game Science. "We are currently applying the same approach to change the way math and science are taught in school."
Since its release in 2008, more than 236,000 players from a variety of backgrounds have registered and collaborated to solve molecular puzzles that could have important implications on science and medicine. The Contender's winning enzyme model was the second Foldit discovery to be published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology and researchers predict two more breakthroughs in the near future.
You can tap into your own puzzle-solving skills and help advance scientific research by playing Foldit at http://fold.it/portal/puzzles.
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