Foldit
Knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs. The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively and collaboratively to fold the best proteins in 3D puzzle games. Foldit is developed by the Center for Game Science at University of Washington in collaboration with UW Department of Biochemistry.
Articles
Computer gamers solve medical problems
As a core area of molecular biology, the study of protein structure is integral to elucidating pathological processes. Protein structure prediction has become one of the most important goals of pharmaceutical and biochemical industries. With […]
Scientific American – on Citizen Science Games
Can You Diagnose Dementia from a Gaming App? By Bahar Gholipour on November 18, 2016 SAN DIEGO—You are guiding a ship through rough waters. On your way you may encounter magical creatures. You can snap […]
Wired, on citizen science games
Sea Hero Quest game aims to diagnose dementia by testing navigation skills By AMELIA HEATHMAN, 17 November 2016 2.4 million people have downloaded the app created by neuroscientists to help them understand dementia. Hilary Evans, […]
Play video games, advance science
Play video games, advance science Scott Horowitz, University of Michigan and James Bardwell, University of Michigan Computer gaming is now a regular part of life for many people. Beyond just being entertaining, though, it can […]
Five articles about citizen science games on Discover Magazine
1. The Computer Game That Could Cure HIV, May 12, 2008 2. Guilt-Free Procrastination: This Online Game Could Cure Genetic Diseases, November 30, 2010 3. Nanocrafter: Playing a Game of Synthetic Biology, February 22, 2015 […]
Gamers outperform both scientists and algorithms in protein-folding race
Gamers have managed to beat both professional scientists and specially designed AI algorithms in the latest attempt to discover how certain proteins fold. The victors achieved their victory by doing what they do best: playing […]
FoldIt Game Finds New Health Application Researching Ebola Treatments
The game “FoldIt” has emerged as one of the more prominent examples of how games have applications in health, challenging players to fold a computer image of a protein into shapes that could be used […]
Do extreme 3d jigsaw puzzles: fold proteins!
Foldit, Do extreme 3d jigsaw puzzles: fold proteins! Instead of spending computer time planting corn or throwing birds around, why not put your clicks and swipes to use solving puzzles involving proteins? Proteins are extraordinarily […]
Publications
Foldit players contribute to the CASP experiment
CASP is a worldwide experiment in which groups work to solve structures of unknown proteins. Many @Foldit players are listed as co-authors in this latest Nature paper examining the results of the WeFold "coopetition" during […]
Foldit Standalone: a video game-derived protein structure manipulation interface using Rosetta
Foldit Standalone is an interactive graphical interface to the Rosetta molecular modeling package. In contrast to most command-line or batch interactions with Rosetta, Foldit Standalone is designed to allow easy, real-time, direct manipulation of protein […]
Chefs Know More than Just Recipes: Professional Vision in a Citizen Science Game
Over the past decade there has been a rapid increase in the number of citizen science projects. Citizen science is now an accepted term for a range of practices that involve members of the general […]
Getting it Right or Being Top Rank: Games in Citizen Science (preprint)
The use of games in citizen science is growing, but can create tension as gaming and science can be seen as incompatible areas of activity. For example, the motivations for winning a game and scientific […]
Addressing Big Data Challenges in Neuroscience
Global neuroscience projects are producing big data at an unprecedented rate that informatic and artificial intelligence (AI) analytics simply cannot handle. Online games, like Foldit, Eterna, and Eyewire and now a new neuroscience game, Mozak—are fueling a people-powered research science (PPRS) revolution, […]
Motivation to Participate in an Online Citizen Science Game – A Study of Foldit
Online citizen science projects have the potential to engage thousands of participants with scientific research. A small number of projects such as Foldit use an online computer game format. Motivation to participate in Foldit was […]
Online citizen science games: opportunities for the biological sciences
Recent developments in digital technologies and the rise of the internet have created new opportunities for citizen science. One of these has been the development of online citizen science games where complex research problems have […]
Foldit: Increased Diels-Alderase activity through backbone remodeling guided by Foldit players
Computational enzyme design holds promise for the production of renewable fuels, drugs and chemicals. De novo enzyme design has generated catalysts for several reactions, but with lower catalytic efficiencies than naturally occurring enzymes. Here we […]
Interviews
Radio interview on Science Friday, Adam Gazzaley and Zoran Popovic
Radio interview on Science Friday, a weekly radio show and website covering science, technology and other cool stuff. For the game Neuroracer: Adam Gazzaley, an associate professor of neurology, physiology and psychiatry at the University […]