U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

[Taskmage]

In just three weeks, online gamers deciphered the structure of a retrovirus protein that has stumped scientists for over a decade, and a study out Sunday says their breakthrough opens doors for a new AIDS drug design.

The protein, called a protease, plays a critical role in how some viruses, including HIV, multiply. Intensive research has been underway to find AIDS drugs that can deactivate proteases, but scientists were hampered by their inability to crack the enzyme's structure.

Looking for a solution, researchers at the University of Washington turned to Foldit, a program created by the university a few years ago that transforms problems of science into competitive computer games, and challenged players to use their three-dimensional problem-solving skills to build accurate models of the protein.

With days, the gamers generated models good enough for the researchers to refine into an accurate portrayal of the enzyme's structure. What's more, the scientists identified parts of the molecule that are likely targets for drugs to block the enzyme.

"These features provide opportunities for the design of antiretroviral drugs, including anti-HIV drugs," the authors wrote.

Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids that fold into complex shapes, but their structures are difficult even for computers to predict.

"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed," said Firas Khatib, a lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

The researchers were hopeful that their finding would open further possibilities of crowd-sourcing and online game-playing in scientific discovery.

"The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems," Khatib said.

Seth Cooper, a co-creator of Foldit, added, "People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at. Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans. The results in this week's paper show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."

Source: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle In AIDS Research That Stumped Scientists For Years | Fox News

[Yellow Mage]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

"The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems,"

Thread topic.

(Could also potentially apply to any large enough fandom, kind of like an inverse of Sturgeon's Law.)

[Taskmage]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

See Jane McGonigal. We need more games to have results that matter and we need more people to play them.

[Icemage]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

See Jane McGonigal. We need more games to have results that matter and we need more people to play them.

I think that's sort of backwards. What we need is a better understanding of game theory so that we can create games which are appealing and also useful at the same time.

It's hard enough to create a game that's fun and interesting enough to be worth playing without imposing external rules to it, and if you really want to harness the power of player creativity, you absolutely need some way of keeping the player's attention. If you can do that, the "need more people to play them" part of the problem solves itself.

Otherwise you just end up with stuff like Mathblasters and The Typing of the Dead (which are neat concepts in as of themselves, and useful in their own way, but they're not trying to solve any overarching problems).


Icemage

[Taskmage]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

I made it sound easier than it is, but the point is the same.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

Up next: An MMORPG that simulates the US Economy so spoonfed career politicians can see how it actually works.

Actually, I think that's just SimCity,

There is good educational software out there, its just that it gets lost in the shuffle of all the flashier stuff.

Everytime some mother tries to get her daughter that Imagine Fashion Designer tripe, I steer them toward Nintendo's relatively unknown Style Savvy, which not only lets you design outfits and do runway shows, but also is a store sim where you have to help customers. deal with transactions, manage inventory, have sales and grow your business.

Still not my kind of game, but its something I can respect all the same and have succeeded in selling each time I pitched it to a customer, which feels good. Its a shame some of the smarter stuff can't be as mainstream as the ready-made shovelware crap, though.

[Icemage]

Re: U.S. Gamers Crack Puzzle in AIDS Research that Stumped Scientists for Years

Citizen Scientists may have found two new Earth-like planets, using Planet Hunters

Citizen Science made an amazing leap this week. Citizen scientists, using the data supplied by the Kepler public archives, helped to identify two possible planets outside of our solar system, thanks to the browser game Planet Hunters.

The 10 best candidates as sifted through by citizen scientists during the first month afterPlanet Hunters went live were passed onto the Kepler team, a group of scientists all over the world looking to find extra-solar planets, for further inquiry. The results were published in the article Planet Hunters: The First Two Planet Candidates Identified by the Public using the Kepler Public Archive Data, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this week.

Definitely an interesting week for science-meets-gaming.


Icemage