Tetris-Like Game Lets Players Find Scientific Solutions

May 13, 2008 -- While it may not carry the same buzz of the recently released Grand Theft Auto IV, Foldit is a new online game that holds grand promise.

Scientists hope the free, downloadable 3D puzzle game, similar to Tetris, may help speed research in developing a vaccine for HIV, creating chemicals that destroy harmful environmental contaminants, producing enzymes that break down cellulose into sugar that can then be turned into ethanol, and in solving problems that have vexed biochemists for years.

All of those solutions rely on a complicated field of science called protein folding. And the Foldit game offers new design solutions to this field.

"People are good at solving 3D puzzles," said Zoran Papovic, a computer scientist at the University of Washington who helped develop Foldit. "So why not let them figure them it out?"

Proteins are the workhorses of the body, performing all the functions that keep us alive. They are made up of long strings of different amino acids that twist and fold into various shapes. The 3D shape of the protein determines its job, whether that is stopping HIV from infecting cells or breaking down cellulose, the fibrous material that gives plants their strength.

Foldit grew out of a program called Rosetta@home that analyzed protein structure as a screen saver. As people watched they saw easy ways of solving big problems that stumped the program.

Computers, according to Popovic, are great at running lots of little calculations, but solving one big calculation, which a human can instantly see a solution to, will stop a computer. Foldit was created to give people a way to implement solutions that computers couldn't calculate.