Growing up with Video Games
Like many
people, I grew up playing video games. I can remember when my twin brother and
I were ~5 years old and got our first gaming console, which was a Sega Genesis.
It came with the “The Lion King,” where we had to jump Simba safely across the
Savannah by jumping from giraffe to giraffe. As we got older, we moved to the
Sega Saturn, PlayStation I, II, III, etc. One of my favorite games was TimeSplitters
2, when four of us would face off in the multiplayer mode of virtual hide-and-seek.
Video games are a fun pastime for people with many different interests.
Now, scientists
are using video games to harness human intelligence to address important
scientific research questions.
This online
puzzle game was developed by the Center for Game Science at the University of
Washington. It involves competition between players trying to work out the 3-D
structures of proteins by folding chains of virtual amino acids into optimal
configurations. The greater the stability of the protein as zigzags, squiggles,
and loops of amino acids are folded into an optimal shape (with the lowest
energy), the higher the score. FoldIt also allows players to design new
proteins that could have potential therapeutic effects, such as inhibiting
influenza virus.
Additionally,
FoldIt players can outperform computer simulations to find the lowest energy
structures of a protein. They solved a research question that scientists
had been studying for decades by determining the structure of a retroviralprotease of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (which causes similar symptoms as HIV
in humans). Also, FoldIt players redesigned anenzyme to increase the speed of a reaction and increase the production of drugs
by ~2,000%.
This game was created by scientists at
Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University. Players arrange colored
discs, which represent nucleotides that form RNA molecules, into 2-D chain-link
shapes. The best designs, voted for by the eteRNA community, are then
generated in the lab and their behavior is observed. The scientists give this
information to the players of the game to help them develop new game
strategies. This continuous cycle helps researchers understand RNA folding and
activity, which can be used to develop new RA molecules to treat diseases.
This puzzle game was created by scientists at
McGill University. The goal of the game is to improve genomic sequence alignments
of disease-associated genes from multiple species. Players move DNA sequences,
illustrated as rows of color-coded blocks, to find the best possible match.
Further, 70% of around 350,000 multiple sequence alignment solutions generated by Phylo players are more accurate than a computer algorithm.
The Cure
This card game was created at the Scripps
Research Institute to help find predictive biomarkers of breast cancer. Players
put together 5 genes from a board of 25 pre-selected genes (based on
cancer-relevance). To win, an individual’s gene set produces the best
predictive model of breast cancer outcomes.
This game comes from a lab at Princeton
University and uses data from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. It
challenges players to map retinal neurons by solving puzzles and reconstructing
3D structures of neurons, which helps researchers understand information
processing circuits in the brain.
A scientist at Stanford University developed various
educational, “biotic games” that help people understand living organisms. In PAC-mecium,
players herd a flock of paramecia (single-celled organisms found in ponds),
which is represented by a fish. Further, they can see how these organisms swim
and change direction in response to electrical stimulation, observe the “fish”
eating virtual food pellets, and maneuver it away from
predators like zebrafish.
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