Structural Biochemistry/Fold.it

Fold.it is an online game that combines human brain power and computer science together to solve one of the hardest problems in biology--the protein folding problem.

== This game was invented by protein researcher David Baker and his fellow computer scientists from University of Washington. The objective of fold.it is find the best structure(the one that is in the lowest energy level)for desire protein. Players use tools like building hydrogen bonds or rotating the structure around. They collect points as they lower the energy of the structure. Players of fold.it are mostly people who don't have knowledge in protein structures. However, these players has done a lot of amazing works in improving our knowledge of proteins. One of the biggest accomplishments they have done was finding the three dimensional structure of a virus that cause AIDS in monkey in 2011. While the supercomputer tried to solve this protein folding problem for 15 years,a group of gamer found the solution in as short as three weeks. This group of gamer didn't want to reveal their real names but their passion for the game has advanced protein study significantly. If you want to be part of this evolutionary game, you can go to http://fold.it/. The game has a clear interface and is very easy to start. As you learn how to use different tools you can use for the game, you also learn more about all the different amino acids interactions in real actions and see it happen in the game. For more information about professor David Baker and his research work, you can go to http://depts.washington.edu/bakerpg/drupal/. ==