Foldit

Infobox Software
name = Foldit

released = 2008


caption = Screen shot of the Foldit application showing a folding puzzle in progress
developer = University of Washington Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and Biochemistry.
operating system = Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
size = 53.03 MB
language = English
status = Active
genre = Video game
license = Proprietary
website = http://fold.it/

Foldit is an experimental video game about protein folding, developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington's departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry. The first public beta was released in May 2008.

Foldit provides a series of tutorials in which the user manipulates simple protein-like structures, and a periodically updated set of puzzles based on real proteins. The application displays a graphical representation of the protein's structure which the user is able to manipulate with the aid of a set of tools. As the structure is modified, a "score" is calculated based on how well-folded the protein is, and a list of high scores for each puzzle is maintained.

The process by which living beings create the primary structure of proteins, protein biosynthesis, is reasonably well understood, as is the means by which proteins are encoded as DNA. Determining how the primary structure of a protein turns into a functioning three-dimensional structure – how the molecule "folds" – is more difficult; the general process is known, but predicting protein structures is computationally demanding.

Foldit is an attempt to apply the human brain's natural three-dimensional pattern matching abilities to this problem. Current puzzles are based on well-understood proteins; by analysing the ways in which humans intuitively approach these puzzles, researchers hope to improve the algorithms employed by existing protein-folding software.

Foldit is a mix of Crowdsourcing and Distributed computing.

CASP

In 2008, the Foldit community submitted many solutions to the CASP protein structure prediction contest. Results will will be announced in early 2009.

Groups

Foldit users may create and join "Groups". Members of a group can share protein solutions with each other.

Scoring

A users Foldit score is a combination of an "Evolver" score and a "Soloist" score. The Soloist score is based on the users best solution while working alone. The Evolver score is based on the best solution derived from a shared solution of fellow group member.

See also

* Protein folding
* Protein structure prediction

References

*

External links

* [http://fold.it/ Foldit project homepage]
* [http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/FoldIt_Wiki Official Foldit wiki]