2011-09-20 08:12:50
Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons
and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like
virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.
The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular
Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and
researchers are honoured as co-authors.
Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex
molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.
Figuring out the structure of proteins is vital for understanding the causes of
many diseases and developing drugs to block them.
But a microscope gives only a flat image of what to the outsider looks like a
plate of one-dimensional scrunched-up spaghetti. Pharmacologists, though, need
a 3-D picture that "unfolds" the molecule and rotates it in order to reveal
potential targets for drugs.
This is where Foldit comes in.
Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose
video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold
chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of
online tools.
To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of
the enzyme in just three weeks.
Cracking the enzyme "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral
drugs," says the study, referring to the lifeline medication against the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
It is believed to be the first time that gamers have resolved a long-standing
scientific problem.
"We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had
failed," Firas Khatib of the university's biochemistry lab said in a press
release.
"The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly
directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."
One of Foldit's creators, Seth Cooper, explained why gamers had succeeded where
computers had failed.
"People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good
at," he said.
"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."