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Baby_Hitler
Errorist




Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 27,660
Loc: To the limit!
Last seen: 32 minutes, 40 seconds
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Foldit- New protein folding "game"
#8415924 - 05/18/08 10:39 AM (16 years, 4 days ago) |
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http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=11326188
Return to the fold May 8th 2008 From The Economist print edition
Playing with proteins
FOR sheer adrenaline, the new computer game “foldit”, does not match the likes of “Grand Theft Auto IV”. But for the world's obsessive problem solvers, a three-dimensional Tetris which allows them to help design a new life-saving vaccine seems certain to be a hit.
“foldit” is the latest incarnation of a project, called Rosetta@home, that uses spare computer time, via a screensaver, to work out how proteins fold. Proteins are the building blocks of life inside cells; they are first made as long chains of molecules and work properly only after they have folded into their final shape. But understanding the rules of protein folding remains one of biology's central problems.
The existing program uses trial and error, and pre-programmed mathematical rules that govern folding as understood today. But users of the screensaver told David Baker, a biochemist at the University of Washington and lead scientist on Rosetta@home, they could do better. So Dr Baker, Zoran Popovic, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, and graduate students Seth Cooper and Adrien Treuille set about creating a compelling computer game.
Players use their computers to fold proteins. The more chemically stable the folded protein becomes, the more points the players are awarded. In trials of the game hundreds of players were given 40 protein puzzles to solve (for the trials, the folding solutions were already known). Many of the best players were not scientists but were able to find the correct structure faster than computers.
The next big step will be to give players proteins for which the optimal folding is not known. They will then be doing cutting-edge research in protein-structure prediction. If all goes well, the game will move on to protein design this summer, by including options that allow players to modify sections of the protein. This will allow them to design a protein that blocks the action of a virus.
Although this may strike some as a remarkable bit of scientific outsourcing, the group is adamant that players who make breakthroughs will share in the scientific glory. This places parents of young “foldit” enthusiasts in a quandary: should they tell their children to stop playing games and get on with their homework, or encourage them to continue playing and possibly share in a Nobel prize?
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leoside
AKA cannon fodder
Registered: 01/18/08
Posts: 1,489
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Re: Foldit- New protein folding "game" [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#8415973 - 05/18/08 11:08 AM (16 years, 4 days ago) |
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haha cool
-------------------- I watched with glee While your kings and queens Fought for ten decades For the gods they made
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ModularMind
M.P.F.



Registered: 02/09/10
Posts: 7,902
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Re: Foldit- New protein folding "game" [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#15106440 - 09/20/11 01:17 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gamers solve molecular puzzle that baffled scientists
By Alan Boyle Last updated 12:45 p.m. ET Sept. 20:
Video-game players have solved a molecular puzzle that stumped scientists for years, and those scientists say the accomplishment could point the way to crowdsourced cures for AIDS and other diseases.
"This is one small piece of the puzzle in being able to help with AIDS," Firas Khatib, a biochemist at the University of Washington, told me. Khatib is the lead author of a research paper on the project, published today by Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
The feat, which was accomplished using a collaborative online game called Foldit, is also one giant leap for citizen science — a burgeoning field that enlists Internet users to look for alien planets, decipher ancient texts and do other scientific tasks that sheer computer power can't accomplish as easily.
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"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at," Seth Cooper, a UW computer scientist who is Foldit's lead designer and developer, explained in a news release. "Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans."
Unraveling a retrovirus For more than a decade, an international team of scientists has been trying to figure out the detailed molecular structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus found in rhesus monkeys. Such enzymes, known as retroviral proteases, play a key role in the virus' spread — and if medical researchers can figure out their structure, they could conceivably design drugs to stop the virus in its tracks. The strategy has been compared to designing a key to fit one of Mother Nature's locks.
The problem is that enzymes are far tougher to crack than your typical lock. There are millions of ways that the bonds between the atoms in the enzyme's molecules could twist and turn. To design the right chemical key, you have to figure out the most efficient, llowest-energy configuration for the molecule — the one that Mother Nature herself came up with.
That's where Foldit plays a role. The game is designed so that players can manipulate virtual molecular structures that look like multicolored, curled-up Tinkertoy sets. The virtual molecules follow the same chemical rules that are obeyed by real molecules. When someone playing the game comes up with a more elegant structure that reflects a lower energy state for the molecule, his or her score goes up. If the structure requires more energy to maintain, or if it doesn't reflect real-life chemistry, then the score is lower.
More than 236,000 players have registered for the game since its debut in 2008.
The monkey-virus puzzle was one of several unsolved molecular mysteries that a colleague of Khatib's at the university, Frank DiMaio, recently tried to solve using a method that took advantage of a protein-folding computer program called Rosetta. "This was one of the cases where his method wasn't able to solve it," Khatib said.
Fortunately, the challenge fit the current capabilities of the Foldit game, so Khatib and his colleagues put the puzzle out there for Foldit's teams to work on. "This was really kind of a last-ditch effort," he recalled. "Can the Foldit players really solve it?"
They could. "They actually did it in less than 10 days," Khatib said.
More VV
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/18/7802623-gamers-solve-molecular-puzzle-that-baffled-scientists?GT1=43001
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