Fold It- Play A Game For Science!

By Neece, on October 5, 2008, at 2:24 am

This is the neatest idea on so many levels. So you need to unwind and play a game. You’re tired of windows solitaire. How about playing a game that could contribute to curing a disease? How about helping science with your big awesome brain!?

You can go here to read about the science behind the “game”.

So basically, in a really simple nutshell, you’re using your intuitive awesome brain to do something that would take computers a huge amount of time and expense to do.

Proteins are part of lots of diseases, so understanding how they fold on themselves is very important.

If scientists understand how they fold, they can then design new proteins to combat the disease related proteins and cure the disease.

Here’s how protein is involved in cancer:

Cancer: Cancer is very different from HIV in that it’s usually our own proteins to blame, instead of proteins from an outside invader. Cancer arises from the uncontrolled growth of cells in some part of our bodies, such as the lung, breast, or skin. Ordinarily, there are systems of proteins that limit cell growth, but they may be damaged by things like UV rays from the sun or chemicals from cigarette smoke. But other proteins, like p53 tumor suppressor, normally recognize the damage and stop the cell from becoming cancerous — unless they too are damaged. In fact, damage to the gene for p53 occurs in about half of human cancers (together with damage to various other genes).

And here’s how protein is involved in Alzheimer’s:

Alzheimer’s: In some ways, Alzheimer’s is the disease most directly caused by proteins. A protein called amyloid-beta precursor protein is a normal part of healthy, functioning nerve cells in the brain. But to do its job, it gets cut into two pieces, leaving behind a little scrap from the middle — amyloid-beta peptide. Many copies of this peptide (short protein segment) can come together to form clumps of protein in the brain. Although many things about Alzheimer’s are still not understood, it is thought that these clumps of protein are a major part of the disease.

There are other things you’re helping too. Go here to read all of the science. Pretty cool, huh? Go here to sign up for a free account and start helping science by playing a game.