The protein causing AIDS in rhesus monkeys that hadn’t been solved for 15 years was finally solved by Foldit players and confirmed by x-ray crystallography. Foldit is a multiplayer online game that challenges players from across the world to solve difficult protein-structure prediction problems.
In the Nature Structural & Molecular Biology article Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players Firas Khatib, Frank DiMaio, et al, were able to substantiate the claim that:
Foldit players were able to generate models of sufficient quality for successful molecular replacement and subsequent structure determination. The refined structure provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs.
The Nature report details how Foldit player were able to solve a real-world modeling problem that lead to the solution of a long-standing protein crystal structure problem that may lead to a cure of AIDS. The concluding sentence of this article reminds us that:
These results indicate the potential for integrating video games into the real-world scientific process: the ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems.
Khatib, F., DiMaio, F., Cooper, S., Kazmierczyk, M., Gilski, M., Krzywda, S., Zabranska, H., et al. (2011). Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players. Nat Struct Mol Biol, advance online publication. doi:10.1038/nsmb.2119
