Crowdsourcing : using the online puzzle game“Foldit ” to design new antiretroviral drugs

1. Crowdsourcing :using the online puzzle game“Foldit” to design new antiretroviral drugs Introduction to crowdsourcing FOLDIT Impact and implications Other examples of crowdsourcing Discussion By Bronagh Carey, 11279621

2. What is CROWDSOURCING ? Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.

3. Foldit is an online experimental puzzle video game about protein folding developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington • departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry. • The designers were: Seth Cooper, AdrienTreuille, Janos Barbero, ZoranPopvic, David Baker, David Salesin

4. The software presents an image of the protein and the player manipulates the image according to set of tools • The tools are based on physics: e.g opposite charges attract etc • The human brain is better attuned to analysing 3D structures • Players don’t have to a have a scientific background – any age can play • The better the fold the more points they get

5. Gamers share and join groups and share best results • Winning protein designs are analysed in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishes • Proteins are part of the disease, they are also part of the cure • Knowing the structure of proteins is the key to creating drugs to combat them

6. “Foldit” uses the human brain to predict folds within protein structures.

7. In 2011 Scientist Mariusz Jaskolski of A. Mickiewicz University in Poland approached David Baker to ask FOLDIT players to map the crystal structure of M-PMV retroviral protease - basically the protein involved in the HIV virus 600 players from 41 teams submitted more than 1.25 million solutions 5,000 of the best answers were analysed The group “the Contenders” were able to produce an accurate model of the protein structure Cracking this enzyme provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs

8. 1.Veverka, V. et al. J. Mol. Biol. 333, 771–780 (2003). 2. Alexander Wlodawer, chief of the Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. • Scientists were trying to solve this for over 10 years, Gamers were able to do it within 10 days by playing the foldit game. 1 • “It’s kind of an unprecedented case of using computing non-specialists to solve a longstanding scientific problem”2

9. distinct paradigm shift in the way Science is being conducted ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at Michael Nielsen author of “Reinventing Discovery” believes there is a major paradigm shift on how Scientific discoveries are being made, publically funded science should be open science

10. Boinc - Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing • The intent of BOINC is to make it possible for researchers to tap into the enormous processing power of personal computers around the world. • FightAids@home • Rosetta@Home • Fold@Home

11. Galaxy Zoo -http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ http://www.openstreetmap.org/

12. There are ethical, social, and economic implications of crowdsourcing.