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Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new game called “Foldit” in which player twists the protein and pulls its arms to move it into its most stable position, which is the shape it would take in nature.

The game has been developed to utilize the skills of gamers from around the world in making medical discoveries, perhaps even finding a cure for HIV. It could won you a Nobel prize.
The game was developed by doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, both in computer science and engineering, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering; David Baker, a UW professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and David Salesin, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. They took advice from professional game designers during game’s development.

According to Popovic:

We’re hopefully going to change the way science is done, and who it’s done by. Our ultimate goal is to have ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize.

The game’s introductory levels teach the rules, which are the same laws of physics by which protein strands curl and twist into three-dimensional shapes — key for biological mysteries ranging from Alzheimer’s to vaccines.

It may feel like you are playing a game but the reality is you are doing research in medical science.

Proteins, of which there are more than 100,000 different kinds in the human body, form every cell, make up the immune system and set the speed of chemical reactions. We know many proteins’ genetic sequence, but don’t know how they fold up into complex shapes whose nooks and crannies play crucial biological roles.

There can be many possible protein shapes and that is why computer simulators are used but still they fail because of the huge number of possibilities that exist. Even super computers can take centuries to resolve it. That is why this game has been launched so that people, using their intuition, might be able to home in on the right answer much more quickly.
In 2005, Baker developed a project named Rosetta@home that taps into volunteers’ computer time all around the world. But even 200,000 volunteers aren’t enough.

The ultimate goal is to present a medical nemesis, such as HIV or malaria, and challenge players to devise a protein with just the right shape to lock into the virus and deactivate it.

The intuitive skills that make someone good at playing Foldit are not necessarily the ones that make a top biologist. Baker says his 13-year-old son is faster at folding proteins than he is. Others may be even faster.

Foldit includes elements of multiplayer games in which people can team up, chat with other players and create online profiles. Over time the researchers will analyze people’s moves to see how the top players solve puzzles. This information will be fed back into the game’s design so the game’s tools and format can evolve.

Click here for Foldit website.