Video Gamers Crack Enzyme Riddle That Could Help Find an AIDS Cure
- Posted on September 19, 2011 at 3:53pm by
Liz Klimas
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The problem-solving skills of a gamer is a beautiful and unique thing. What stumped scientists for decades only took gamers 10 days of concentration to crack.
The task? Figure out an enzyme riddle that scientists are now saying could unlock the cure to AIDS and other diseases.
The Daily Mail has more:
For more than a decade, an international team of scientists has been trying to figure out the detailed molecular structure of an 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.
Scientists know the pieces that make up a protein but cannot predict how those parts fit together into a 3D structure. And since proteins act like locks and keys, the structure is crucial.
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, lowest-energy configuration for the molecule.
Using a game developed by the University of Washington called Foldit, a tool long recognized in the scientific community, players fold an enzyme into different shapes and are scored higher based on developing a molecule with a lower energy state. Scientists believe the enzyme structure they were looking for has been discovered with this game. More than 57,000 people played the game and were named in the paper published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
Image from the Foldit video game program. (Image: University of Washington/MSNBC)
MSNBC reports that the “winning” structure was created by a person called “mimi,” who in an email said she had been playing the game for three years.
“The game is not only an interesting intellectual challenge, allowing you to use your problem-solving skills, ‘feel’ for protein shapes, and whatever biochemical knowledge you have to obtain a solution to each puzzle, but it also provides a unique society of players driven by both individual and team rivalry with an overall purpose of improving the game and the results achieved. A body of knowledge has been built up in the Wiki by contributions from players, and ideas are constantly fed back to the game designers.
“In the case of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, I had looked at the structure of the options we were presented with and identified that it would be better if the ‘flap’ could be made to sit closer to the body of the protein — one of the basic rules of folding is to make the protein as compact as possible — but when I tried this with my solo solution, I couldn’t get it to work. However, when I applied the same approach to the evolved solution that had been worked on by other team members, I was able to get it to tuck in, and that proved to be the answer to the structure. I believe that it was the changes made by my colleagues that enabled mine to work, so it was very much a team effort.
“We were all very excited to hear that we had helped to find the answer to this crystal form, especially since it had been outstanding so long and other methods had been unsuccessful. The feeling of having done something that could make a significant contribution to research in this field is very special and unexpected. Foldit players have achieved a number of successes so far, and I hope we will go on to make many more.
“You may be aware that we asked for accreditation for the Foldit Contenders Team within the article, rather than being named individually.”
Watch MSNBC’s report:
Seth Cooper, University of Washington computer scientist and Foldit’s lead designer and developer, hopes that this breakthrough helps strengthen the scientific community’s acceptance of using tools like Foldit to “bring together the strengths of computers and humans.”
Although non-scientists may have solved the puzzle, researchers did verify they found the correct enzyme structure.
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Comments (71)
atechgeek
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 9:39amPlease come up with a game that teaches my kids how to fold their laundry.
Report Post »9111315
Posted on September 21, 2011 at 11:06amOutstanding idea. Until they do, you may want to thy the old school game called “Don’t spare the rod”
Report Post »Lost In Space
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 7:12amIm waiting for the day when the enviro-progressive wack job gets ahold of some designer germ with a cure and releases it to try and save the planet, curing only those same minded individuals. And in the end hurting a bunch of innocent people.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 6:24amOnce again the article title is misleading. These weren’t “gamers”. The people playing this were intellectuals and people in scientific and mathematical fields, and the person with the “winning” structure had been playing it for three years. These weren’t teenagers messing around on their Xbox 360.
Report Post »RavenGlenn
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 12:52pmJust because they are intellectuals does not mean that they are not gamers.
Your definition of ‘gamers’ seems to be one that involves a view of pimply teenagers in their parent’s basement. Meanwhile, the average age of gamers is currently 32 years of age. I’m willing to bet that most of them have degrees and careers.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 1:52pm@ ravenglenn You got it.
Report Post »EpsilonEridani
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 2:36pm@Ravenglenn – i completely agree with your post. Most gamers are older, from all walks of life.
Report Post »Gamers are constant problem solvers, taught to look for the smallest details to help them in their quests. The pimply faced nerd playing Atari alone in his mothers basement is not a fact.
Games teach you to think outside the box, and use your brain in ways that non gamers don’t appreciate.
navydoc2008
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 6:21pmUmm, Err, I guess I have got to hang up the controller since I’m an older professional? Or maybe im just not intellectual? Oh well the secret’s out now….
Report Post »LastingLiberty
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 2:26amI‘m surprised they haven’t made a computer program that would have found this out sooner and faster.
Report Post »atechgeek
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 9:38amI am a software developer and the amount of calculations required would take years by some of the fastest machines. The human brain and it’s power to observe and make non-linear conclusions can not be reproduced by a machine. Machines cannot think like a human brain … yet :-)
Report Post »ThankBabyJesus
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 12:16amI’m a Gamer! What do you all need?
Report Post »independentvoteril
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:35pmbet with a little more time the gamers could have found a cure WITHOUT medicine..
Report Post »Pine105
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:14pmGive the gamers the global warming data and maybe we will get the truth
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:25pmGOOD ONE!!!
Problem is, even the DATA has been fudged!
Report Post »Huguenot Descendant
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:09pmSo video games can help in the world, and here my mother said I was wasting my life with them. How about giving some more folding at home projects.
Report Post »100 Million Patriots Standing
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 6:21amThey are already working on that idea but with a twist….
they start with the assumed premise that man made global warming is a fact and they are to solve the sustainability issue. “Gaming Can Make a Better World” by Jane McGonigal
in this regard without all the facts it becomes more like brain washing/ indoctrination
Report Post »Talmid of Yeshua
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:04pmCool article.. I’m off to play some more WoW… (World of WarCraft)… had to take a quick break to check the Blaze and Fox News.
Report Post »Huguenot Descendant
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:08pmLooking forward to Guild Wars 2 at all? I think that will blow WoW out of the water when it’s released.
Report Post »ByDawnsEarlyLight
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 10:00amlol thought i was the only WoW playing glen beck listening, blaze subscribing, gbtv watching nerd. I do love the idea of using gaming technology to solve problems like this, im gonna look into foldit, sounds like a lot of fun. I always thought it was funny that gamers got such a bad rap, my kids are great typists and map readers and prob solvers in a lot of ways thanks to the challenges of various games, not to mention a family enviroment where education and sports are also important and fun.
Report Post »jessieH
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:34pmSee what can happen when you don‘t have to worry about the gov’t. getting involved!!!
Report Post »endgamer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:33pmAids will never be cured even though there may be a cure. It’s called profit. If they can make millions managing disease at the expense of the taxpayer and insurance companies then it will perpetuate. Take away the endless source of cash and you will find a cure for most anything. You also have progressives that want to exterminate anyone who isn’t on “the list” of who lives so they will let aids patients die because they are useless eaters. Aids was designed to be a form of genocide, no one survives it and the medical industry makes billions of those that have it..
Report Post »TheBMT
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:31pmWhile I believe that may be the case to a degree. Like all truth, it will see the light of day for this cure.
Report Post »1TrueOne55
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:40pmThe problem with “Cures” is that the money stream dries up after the last person is cured. That could be why “Cure for Cancer” has been so elusive. If you just treat symptoms then you make more money until that person dies.
Report Post »Like my situation I have an Auto Immune Disease and there is a chemical developed for MD that could so call cure it but the FDA refuses to allow it to be used by non-MD patients. It would reset my Auto Immune system for 20K but when I have to pay nearly $200+ per month for symptom fixers you do the math, at 56 years until hopefully 70 years how much I could be allowed to save for that 20K shot.
It makes me upset.
TriforcePlayer
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 9:26pmCasuals
Report Post »atombomb
Posted on September 23, 2011 at 11:24amLmao
Report Post »deerjerkydave
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:51pmHow can I get my hands on this game? j/k
Report Post »americaneagle
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:30pmWhat a great achievement. I pray this brings an end to this terrible disease and would like to congratulate all those who worked so hard on this very difficult problem.
Report Post »DavidInStLouis
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 7:34pmAmen to that! : )
Report Post »abbygirl1994
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:26pmDon’t kid yourself. aides like cancer has probably had cures for years.. but if they would announce that, they wouldn’t get any more funds to support the corruption.. meanwhile thousands upon thousands have dies.. because of greed. You can’t tell me that a gamer found a cure.. not when educated people in medicine could never find one. Bull roar!
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:30pmEducated and medical don’t go together, trained monkeys could do what 99% of the medical community can do.
Report Post »Baxie
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:57pmNot a cure………..the molecular structure. Hey, anything’s possible! And what if it leads to scientific breakthroughs? They haven’t found a cure for anything since polio, we need them to show us something. I‘m getting tired of contributing money and feeling like it isn’t doing any good.
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 8:11pm@Baxie There is a reason they haven’t “cured” anything since polio. A cure is an end to the illness, but a treatment is a guaranteed customer for life!
Report Post »confederacyofdunces
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:26pmWhen you are too close to the problem you start approaching the problem in similar ways leading to circular thinking. A fresh set of eyes can often solve the problem. Who said gamers are not smart or educated?
Report Post »Obama>Jesus
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:15pmThe technology of gaming is the future. The gamers of today are going to be military leaders (tactics through Real Time Strategy games), surgeons (increased hand-eye coordination and fine muscle movement), and now bio-engineers of tomorrow.
Report Post »chipmunk
Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:53pmAgreed.
But obama will still be < JESUS.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 21, 2011 at 2:32amEver read “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card? It came out in 1977.
Report Post »gmoneytx
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:13pmAnd your parents said video games turn your brain to mush! The next nuclear scientist may be playing the Wii right next door!
Report Post »fatjack
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 7:41pmDon’t go “Postal” on us.
Report Post »The_Postal
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:59pmWait. I thought all us video game players were evil psychotics just one game of Call of Duty or Halo away from taking out our nearest McDonalds?! NOW we’re the saviors of AIDS victims the world over.
This is the one thing I hate about the Conservatives. On everything else they want less government, but on video games, suddenly they demand over sight? And now that something good came from gaming, it’s a plus.
Double standard much?
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:10pmWe get “news” about the AIDS virus on the way to be being defeated all the time….I’ll believe it when I see it.
Report Post »ashestoashes
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:13pmI thought that the Aids virus is always changing. That everytime they think that they have a cure..it just changes form. We will see.
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:32pmGrasping at straws much? The idiotic “logic” of liberals, would be funny, if it wasn’t so bad for freedom and the continued success of mankind.
Report Post »Wilkins
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:44pmOh, this article was about first person shooter games? I thought it was about enlisting the help of on-line puzzle solvers, through a custom game-like application called ‘Foldit’, to find a solution that had eluded scientists for years.
What great world wide problems are Halo addicts working on, to the betterment of all, while sitting in their parents’ basements fantasizing shooting people in the head?
Report Post »robstoddard
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 7:44pmDepends on who you’re talking to, are they progressive republicans or not? Progressives are in both parties, man, it’s the progressives that try to grow the government and kill our liberties.
You‘ve been trolling GB’s site for how long and haven’t figured this out yet? Oh yea, you’re liberal.
Report Post »oldironsides
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 7:49pmThis conservative thinks you should play whatever you want, no matter the body count –
Report Post »as long as I don’t have to pay for it – liberty and the pursuit of happiness for gamers too!
The_Postal
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:00pmI’m not a liberal nor a progressive. It‘s just a standard that I’ve noticed when it comes to nearly ANY video game with violence. So long as it falls under what they say is okay. Other than that, i hear talk show folks like Pat Campbell on KFAQ here in tulsa mention it as well as Glenn now and again and it always drive me crazy.
I’m glad for the AIDS find, especially if it comes to something.
Oh, and not all gamers live with mom and dad. Most of us have families and jobs just like up tight small minded folks like you.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:43pmAIDS gettin’ raept.
Report Post »Bible Quotin' Science Fearin' Conservative American
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:52pmAIDS just got Pwned,
noob
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:14pmI bet you had / have to use Google to find the origins of “pwnd”.
Report Post »Zer0
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 10:33pmBoth of you get uber Lulz!!!
Report Post »BonnieBlueFlag
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:14pmSometimes people are just amazing. Nerds FTW.
Report Post »BuckeyeWithA45
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:40pmI picture a gamer standing over the pixel-protien and procaliming PWNT!!
Report Post »ThoughtfulConservative
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:14pmAll Your AIDS Are Belong To Us
Report Post »xoke
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:32pmI get this! I’m sure it will fly by many others though, lol. Just remember, everyone runs faster with a knife.
Report Post »Rogue9
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:37pmJust change your signin to CATS
Report Post »BuckeyeWithA45
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:41pmthat comment brought back many fond memories of gamming on a slow sunday afternoon. thanks for the LOLs
Report Post »shirelover
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:11pmROFLOL TXArmadillo – yeah, I think your college gaming education is probably already at your ‘waist”, maybe if you work out you can get rid of that waist… but I do think your gaming education will not go to waste if you use it correctly.
sorry dude! that was a cheap shot that was too easy.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:10pmAmazing story. And to think, computer sciences are just in their infancy…… Wow!
Report Post »dont_drive_slow_in_the_left_lane_obliviot
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:09pmway to utilize the cloud.
Report Post »NotPoliticallyCorrect
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:09pmOooooh, let’s have them solve this economic puzzle!
Report Post »xoke
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:35pmI already did…Step one, America needs to stop voting for Marxists, Step two …, Step three, recovery.
Report Post »TexasArmadillo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:01pmUhh, you mean my college gaming education won’t go to waist?
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:09pmIf you sit on your couch all day playing games and eating junk food it WILL go to your waist.
Report Post »As to whether it goes to waste is answered in the article above…
Apparently not!
ThoughtfulConservative
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:13pmApparently not, it appears as if you may be the future savior of society.
Report Post »willbedone
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:14pmIt will only go to your waist if you eat too much while you are playing this game. Otherwise it may be a waste of your time.
Report Post »Run Silent
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 5:14pmWaist? Gaming has made you pleasingly plump???
Report Post »TexasArmadillo
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 11:35pmMy bad. Well, haste makes waist, wait I meant waste. See I‘m growing and I don’t just mean my mid- section.
Report Post »