Proteins are strings of 50-1000 aminoacids that folds in specific 3D coils. Understanding how proteins fold into unique three-dimensional shapes is a big quest, and it is important because once you know the structure of a protein involved in a disease, you can design a drug docking the protein. Anyway, the number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical, so figuring out which of the many possible structures is the best one is regarded as one of the hardest problems in biology today.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of Washington are bringing the arcane world of protein folding to the online gaming arena with the launch of “Foldit,” a free game in which players around the world compete to design proteins. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins. Play and be a mechanical turk for science!
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The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has launched "Immune Attack," a new educational video game designed to teach fundamental concepts of immunology to high school and college-level students.