I saw in this article that online gamers
collaborated to solve a challenge posed to them in the form of a game. The
challenge was to create an accurate model of a retrovirus protein that will
allow researchers to design drugs targeted at key elements of the protein to
help block it. Hopefully, the research will lead to great breakthroughs in
AIDS/HIV research and perhaps other diseases as well.
Perhaps even more interesting is the use of the program that
was used to create the game. Researchers at the University of Washington
turned to Foldit, which takes scientific challenges and turns them into games.
In this case, that game was then turned over to the online gamers who figured
out the correct model in approximately three weeks.
Could a variation of this type of collaboration actually
result in new technology being developed in the future, even in areas such as
medical devices? The idea is pretty incredible and I look forward to hearing of
more success stories from this program. No doubt there will be new attention
being given to it by science and research communities.
Sean Fenske, Editor-in-Chief