Thursday, July 17, 2008
FoldIt!
The Baker Laboratory at University of Washington has developed a free, downloadable computer game inspired by their Rosetta@home software (similar to Stanford's Folding@home distributed computing software). The game is called FoldIt and no deep understanding of biochemistry is necessary to play. The idea is to fold given protein structures into the lowest-energy conformation possible. There are a few tutorial levels to help you learn how things work. FoldIt is extremely enjoyable, but definitely a work in progress. I'm addicted! I definitely recommend going to the website and reading more about the idea and applications of this project.
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2 comments:
If you end up folding a protein into a shape that actually works and, say, cures cancer or even better enhances sexual performance or grows hair, who owns the patent on the protein shape???
In my mind, the kind folks at the Baker lab have done all the work for us. All the calculations to be taken into account have been translated into a simple scoring system. I don't know that a single player or team could take as much credit for any solved proteinss that turn out to be The Lowest Energy Conformation as the people who actually developed the Rosetta engine, wrote the algorithms and converted it to an easily understandable format. I'm sure winners will receive some recognition, but I'm not certain anyone is expecting to "own" the structures they come up with.
I tried to find out more about the intellectual property angle to FoldIt, but I couldn't turn up anything. If you learn something, please let me know. :) Right now, I'm playing the game because it relaxes me and I am quite happy just to try and help out a good cause.
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