Raw Story has an article out today recounting the story of how an AIDS enzyme which had puzzled scientists for decades has been unraveled by computer gamers. Trying to figure out the structure of certain proteins in the molecular makeup of pathogens is a difficult task. Scientists cannot determine which pieces of the enzyme may be vulnerable to medical compounds until they understand the three dimensional shape of the enzyme itself. Computers analyzing the two dimensional images of the proteins as viewed through a microscope were not up to the task. But a group of video game mavens, using a specialized software tool, applied their well-honed (and likely Cheetos stained) gaming abilities to unlock the shape of the enzyme in the AIDS virus. Click here to read the details of this stunning story. Raw Story has an article out today recounting the story of how an AIDS enzyme which had puzzled scientists for decades has been unraveled by computer gamers. Trying to figure out the structure of certain proteins in the molecular makeup of pathogens is a difficult task. Scientists cannot determine which pieces of the enzyme may be vulnerable to medical compounds until they understand the three dimensional shape of the enzyme itself. Computers analyzing the two dimensional images of the proteins as viewed through a microscope were not up to the task. But a group of video game mavens, using a specialized software tool, applied their well-honed (and likely Cheetos stained) gaming abilities to unlock the shape of the enzyme in the AIDS virus. Click here to read the details of this stunning story. One Response to “Interesting Intersection Between Medicine and Gaming”
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This is wonderful. It’s good to see that melding human intuitiveness and competativeness can yield results that are still beyond the capabilities of computers. It’s also a pretty exciting prospect that voluntary gamers might become a task force for future research…maybe I will let my son have just five more minutes on the ps3 tonight.