Foldit players solve AIDS puzzle

Players of the online game Foldit have helped discover the structure of an enzyme that had the scientific community stumped for a decade, representing a significant step forward in attempts to cure retroviral diseases like AIDS.
The enzyme, a Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) retroviral protease, was accurately modelled by Foldit players in just three weeks, and opens the door to development of antiretroviral drugs.Foldit makes use of players' 3D puzzle-solving abilities and competitive nature to solve problems that computers alone have been unable to do.
A report, published by the University Of Washington and crediting gamers as well as researchers, says the discovery "provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs."
Firas Khatib, of the university's biochemistry lab, said: "We wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed. The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems."
Foldit co-creator Seth Cooper added: "People have spational reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at. Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans.
"The results show that gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before."
Foldit, a collaboration between the University Of Washington's computer science and biochemistry departments, was launched in 2008. The University says it has two further discoveries - one algorithmic, the other a brand-new protein - which it intends to publish in the near future.

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