AIDS enzyme puzzle By Online gamers crack

Players Network has achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life, or Dungeons & Dragons: they have discovered the structure of an enzyme, such as the AIDS virus, which was thwarted scientists decade.The to be published Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology of the funds , which - especially in science publishing - and both players Scientists have the honor of co-authors. 

Their goal was a monomeric enzyme, cutting agent, a complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, the family, which includes HIV.Figuring structure of proteins is important for understanding the causes of many diseases and develop drugs that block. 

But the microscope is just a flat picture of what an outsider looks scrunched up a one-dimensional plate of spaghetti. Pharmacologists, although almost 3-D image is "friends" and rotate the molecule to demonstrate the potential targets drugs.This which enters Foldit 

Developed at the University of Washington in 2008, it is fun to use for a game where players are divided into groups to compete with rival chains to reveal amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - using online tools. To the amazement of scientists, the players produced an accurate model of the enzyme for the three enzymes weeks.Cracking "provides new knowledge to design anti-retroviral drugs," says the study shows the life-line for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is believed that the first time that players have resolved a long-term scientific problem. 

"We wanted to see if human intuition can succeed where methods have been automated," says Firas Khatib University chemistry lab in a statement. "The ingenuity of the players is the enormous power which, if properly directed, can be used to solve various scientific problems." Foldit One of the creators Seth Cooper, explained why the players were not successful with computers. "People are thinking, spatial skills, something computers are still not good," he said. " Games provide a framework that combines the power of computers and people. weekly, the results of the game, and scientific calculations can be combined to make advances that were not possible before. "