Computer Gamers Tackle Protein Folding

Computer gamers have joined in a global effort to tackle one of the most complex scientific questions of all time: protein folding. The folding of proteins is important in order to understand the structure, function and interactions of proteins at the molecular level. These insights can help scientists create medicines and treatments for diseases and understand how different organisms function and evolve. To this end, computer gamers have joined the race to understand the process of protein folding by playing a game called Foldit. The game uses powerful computer algorithms to simulate protein folding and the gamers use their problem solving and intuition to play the game and design the most efficient protein structures. As the game progresses, the players’ solutions are gathered and used by researchers to find the most efficient solution to the real-world problem of protein folding. This crowdsourced effort has great potential to significantly accelerate the understanding of protein folding and its implications for human health and life.