Gamers take on Protein Challenges
Computer scientists and biochemists at the University of Washington launched a project in 2008 that taps into the brainpower of computer gamers to fold proteins. Almost 60,000 people around the world have taken on the challenge.
In the process, Foldit players have been able to do better than computers on problems that require radical moves, risks, and long-term vision.
There are more than 100,000 different kinds of proteins in the human body.
While scientists already know the genetic sequences of many, they’re still working to understand how they fold up into complex shapes that play vital biological roles.
It turns out that in Foldit, which is free, people tend to outperform computers when a problem requires intuitive leaps or strategy shifts.
Foldit has been compared to Tetris, but instead of stacking blocks, players fold a protein. Players are awarded points based on the internal energy of the 3D protein structure, and every puzzle has a high score that players can try to best.
Although the players have yet to design proteins that can, say, disable viruses or generate energy, the team at UW is confident that with so much brain and computing power involved, it is only a matter of time before medical issues are tackled. They even included in their author list an acknowledgement of more than 57,000 Foldit players.
Why is shape important? This structure specifies the function of the protein. For example, a protein that breaks down glucose so the cell can use the energy stored in the sugar will have a shape that recognizes the glucose and binds to it (like a lock and key) and chemically reactive amino acids that will react with the glucose and break it down to release the energy.
Shape is important in VHL too. In some cases, the VHL gene might be correctly spelled, but for some reason fails to fold correctly, so it does not join with other proteins as it should.
“The integration of human visual problem-solving and strategy development capabilities with traditional computational algorithms through interactive multiplayer games is a powerful new approach to solving computationally-limited scientific problems.”
References: http://fold.it/portal/info/science
Seth Cooper, et al., “Predicting protein structures with a multiplayer online game” Nature 466, 756-760 (5 August 2010).http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7307/full/nature09304.html
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