Research into protein folding now an online PC game
Winga
MrSouth Africa Icrontian
<p>A research team at the University of Washington have come up with a novel way to get the online community involved in the research of protein folding. They have turned it into a fun, puzzle solving PC game, called <a href="http://fold.it/portal/info/science">Foldit</a></p>
<p>The outcome they hope to achieve is almost identical to the project run by Stanford University known as Folding@home. By understanding the way proteins fold or misfold they hope to find cures for ailments such as HIV/ Aids, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and related syndromes. Where Folding@home unobtrusively runs the application in the background, requiring little or no intervention from the user, Foldit is a lot more hands on.</p>
<p>The game requires online registration. After a quick tutorial and a few practice rounds, it’s onto the serious task of protein folding. Presented with three dimensional models of proteins that has been misshaped or unravelled, the aim of the game is to fold them back into their original shapes.</p>
<div class="figure"><img src="/draco/images/news/2008/05/foldit_protein1.jpg" alt="" /></div><p>To add community appeal, Foldit allows individual players to band together in groups to battle it out for top spot in the rankings, which are regularly updated on the sites home page. A live chat window is also ever present throughout the game. Players may not be saving the world from an alien invasion or rescuing a damsel in distress, but this is a game with a purpose.</p>
<p>The team behind Foldit are collecting data to determine whether humans are better and more efficient at puzzle-solving and pattern recognition than existing computer programs. If this proves to be true, computers can be taught human strategies to fold proteins faster than ever, bringing us closer to a cure for many of the age old diseases that still plague mankind today.</p>
<p>The outcome they hope to achieve is almost identical to the project run by Stanford University known as Folding@home. By understanding the way proteins fold or misfold they hope to find cures for ailments such as HIV/ Aids, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and related syndromes. Where Folding@home unobtrusively runs the application in the background, requiring little or no intervention from the user, Foldit is a lot more hands on.</p>
<p>The game requires online registration. After a quick tutorial and a few practice rounds, it’s onto the serious task of protein folding. Presented with three dimensional models of proteins that has been misshaped or unravelled, the aim of the game is to fold them back into their original shapes.</p>
<div class="figure"><img src="/draco/images/news/2008/05/foldit_protein1.jpg" alt="" /></div><p>To add community appeal, Foldit allows individual players to band together in groups to battle it out for top spot in the rankings, which are regularly updated on the sites home page. A live chat window is also ever present throughout the game. Players may not be saving the world from an alien invasion or rescuing a damsel in distress, but this is a game with a purpose.</p>
<p>The team behind Foldit are collecting data to determine whether humans are better and more efficient at puzzle-solving and pattern recognition than existing computer programs. If this proves to be true, computers can be taught human strategies to fold proteins faster than ever, bringing us closer to a cure for many of the age old diseases that still plague mankind today.</p>
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Comments
"What other good stuff am I contributing to by playing?
Proteins are found in all living things, including plants. Certain types of plants are grown and converted to biofuel, but the conversion process is not as fast and efficient as it could be. A critical step in turning plants into fuel is breaking down the plant material, which is currently done by microbial enzymes (proteins) called "cellulases". Perhaps we can find new proteins to do it better."
What a scope! Not only to help human bodies but biofuel as well.