Protein-folding game taps power of worldwide audience to solve difficult puzzles

in Physics ChemistryA cooperative online game that puts volunteer "gamers" to work folding proteins has attracted 50,000 players whose "distributed thinking" has, in some cases, proven more powerful than computers in predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins. Extension of these efforts could one day pay off in the design of new proteins that help fight disease, sequester carbon, or clean up the environment. The free game, called Foldit, is the brainchild of David Baker, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute biologist, and colleagues Zoran Popovic and Seth Cooper, who are in the computer science department at the University of Washington. The online community of Foldit players is now helping the researchers as they attempt to crack "the protein-folding problem," one of molecular biology's toughest challenges."The positive response to Foldit makes me very optimistic for getting the general public involved in science," says Baker. "There's a lot of creativity and energy out there that is being spent on computer games that could go into solving scientific problems. I'm very pleased we've been able to harness some of that energy." Proteins are the miniature machines that carry out almost all the important functions in the body. Scientists have long known that the three-dimensional structures of proteins are completely determined by their linear amino acid sequence. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Researchers now know the amino acid sequence of every protein encoded in the human genome. Until recently, however, it seemed nearly impossible to compute the structures of proteins from their amino acid sequences, and solving this problem has been one of Baker's obsessions.In creating Foldit, the researchers partly drew inspiration from "World of Warcraft" and other online games that have attracted millions Rosetta Stone of players who compete and cooperate to solve puzzles. Baker calls Foldit a success in "distributed thinking" – presenting scientific problems to the masses and attracting a talented crowd that contributes new solutions. An article describing Foldit is published in the August 5, 2010 issue of the journal Nature.Foldit presents players with the challenge of folding proteins into their lowest energy shape. A set of online tools built into the game lets players tug, twist, and otherwise tweak individual segments of each protein, and they can direct traditional computer algorithms to carry out fine-tuning. As the target protein scrunches into a lower energy shape, the player's score rises. Players can compete individually or in teams, and a chat window lets players communicate as they wrestle with their structures. These social aspects of the game have helped draw a crowd: Not only do players enjoy the rewards of solving puzzles, they do so while interacting with other like-minded people. "The cooperative aspect really adds to the appeal of the game," Baker says. An informal survey of 150 Foldit players revealed that many are non-scientists. For instance, the top five solo players contacted by Baker's team each reported no more than a high-school level biochemistry background. Non-scientists can excel at Foldit because the game requires no previous knowledge of protein folding. Instead, the game draws on visualization skills.

Posted in: Rosetta Stone,Rosetta Stone Outlet,rosetta stone software,Rosetta Stone V3