For y'all gamers: How gamers can save REAL WORLD lives

jacky8

jacky8

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Mar 16, 2008
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The structure of a complex protein causing AIDS in rhesus monkeys that hadn't been solved for 15 years was recently resolved by gamers @ Foldit

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that a group of video gamers have helped scientists at the University of Washington gain a much greater understanding of how the monomeric protease enzyme constructs itself, via the game Foldit.

Foldit, released in 2008 by University of Washington students, challenges players to collaboratively unfold chains of amino acids, and whichever team can figure out the lowest-energy model scores the highest number of points. What is amazing, is that it only took three weeks for players to figure out the best way for the protein to construct itself!

Firas Khatib, one of the lead researchers on the monomeric protease enzyme project “…wanted to see if human intuition could succeed where automated methods had failed,” and apparently like his hunch was correct. Scott Cooper, one of the game’s creators explains that “People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at.”

Without going into too much techno-babble, the monomeric protease enzyme is an enormous step forward in combating and treating retro-viruses such as HIV and AIDS.

The fact that gamers were able to figure it out in three weeks is astounding, and it just goes to show that playing video games can not only be productive, but potentially life-saving!
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According to Fox, it took players a matter of days to come up with models that were solid enough for researchers to translate into scientific rendering of the protein.
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Foldit has not only made this breakthrough with AIDS research, but it has also aided in Cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

The more word gets out there about Foldit among the gaming community, the better it is for all of us.

Idea: If there could be a way for gamers to get paid for fully or partly (even 0.1%) resolving the structure of complex proteins or other molecules, this could be a good way for some intelligent gamers amongst us to make money and help in finding cures for some of the incurable diseases.

Is this trend of using collective effort to resolve molecules going to get popular? Or will it be considered as a potential threat by the big pharma and somehow suppressed?
 


I am more than sure that 100% cure of AIDS/HIV already present, yep, they (pharma corps) just want to drain people money all their life making it "uncurable" disease. Just like rebills....
 
dsiomtw said:
^^^ You're wrong. Humans are incapable of keeping a secret that big.
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Oh, you mean like:

  • There have been cars for the last few decades that get more than 50MPG AND cost the same as regular cars (i.e. modifying the carburetors or some other parts).
  • Our medications for medicine that we pay pharma companies $100/pill is sold overseas, by the very same companies we pay high prices to, for pennies/pill.
  • etc.
You will never hear about this because it's not beneficial to the "Government" or those companies that the "Government" passes laws and regulations for.

There's a reason that the government passes regulations to only allow a few pharmacy, oil, energy, etc. companies to operate. It's because those companies pay the politicians to create false barriers to entry to create pseudo monopolies so that they all get rich in the process.

When this happens, they then can innovate on their own schedules or pay off the government to look the other way when they coverup and do-away with innovations by others.

A lot goes on and is passed into law that the media doesn't cover, just like the media will create false issues (such as Obama's "jobs" and "tax" policies being covered today) that divert attention from real things people should be focusing on (like all those Internet blacklists and censorship bills that have had 0 air time but will control how easily those big companies mentioned above can silence their competition online).
 
dsiomtw said:
^^^ You're wrong. Humans are incapable of keeping a secret that big.
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LOL! Wow you're naive!!!

1. If people DO keep a secret successfully, all you'd ever hear about are the secrets that aren't kept.... Exactly like you have.

2. There are nearly Infinite situations in government which can only be explained by successful bribery or other conspiracy... Hell, who shot JFK? We all know it wasn't just Oswald, but the secret was successfully kept on who the others are and what their actual motive was. (Logic leads us to believe it was to protect the Fed, but we don't know that for sure.)

3. Once you live in other cultures you notice that they have certain things over there cheaper, across many different industries, that there is no other explanation for other than conspiracies and flat-out lies. Like Rexbit said, we're not being told anything important by our media.

It's ALL just bread and circuses. You're being fed a huge, universe of illusions that have nothing to do with the truth.

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Rexibit said:
  • Our medications for medicine that we pay pharma companies $100/pill is sold overseas, by the very same companies we pay high prices to, for pennies/pill.
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I think that's just called price discrimination, not a secret conspiracy.
 
Rexibit said:
Oh, you mean like:

  • Our medications for medicine that we pay pharma companies $100/pill is sold overseas, by the very same companies we pay high prices to, for pennies/pill.
  • etc.
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Lol, this isn't a conspiracy. People in the third world simply can't afford the same prices as over here, so there's no point in the pharma companies trying to charge the same amount.

Instead they're in the position of being able to charge the market value depending on the country. The profit margins on selling drugs to poorer companies are much smaller, but it's better than no profit at all.

It's only possible to do this if it's difficult to import the item though. It wouldn't work with most things, but it's difficult to order medication from overseas.

And back to the OP.....

Foldit is a really cool idea that makes a lot of sense. There must be loads of other potential applications too with a bit of creativity.
 
Ill let Lukep provide my insights into the pharm industry, but I do want to say that is really damn cool what they did with that game.
 
aeisn said:
I think that's just called price discrimination, not a secret conspiracy.
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Alexpte said:
Lol, this isn't a conspiracy. People in the third world simply can't afford the same prices as over here, so there's no point in the pharma companies trying to charge the same amount.

Instead they're in the position of being able to charge the market value depending on the country. The profit margins on selling drugs to poorer companies are much smaller, but it's better than no profit at all.

It's only possible to do this if it's difficult to import the item though. It wouldn't work with most things, but it's difficult to order medication from overseas.
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One things for sure: You two have both been taking your Blue Pills too.

Look, if big Pharma can find it profitable, at all, to sell pills in Zambia for $0.50 each and turn around and Justify selling that same pill to the US for $50 each, then something downright Conspiratorial is going on!

That means that Merck, for instance, is selling drug X to the US market at $50 a pill, and for some odd reason P&G doesn't have any interest in selling their version of the pill for $40 to us in order to compete, when we know damn well their pills sell at $0.50 elsewhere.

No, obviously no conspiracies there between Merck & P&G. What were we thinking???

Worse yet, In the USA I simply do not have access to certain drugs, AT ALL, especially preventative drugs that I can get from any doctors in the UK or Thailand. (And I DO.) The FDA loves to say that pretty much everything from Switzerland is unacceptable for use in the USA, meanwhile the rest of the world LOVES the preventative properties of drugs and creams made there.

There is a VAST conspiracy at the FDA to protect the most PROFITABLE drugs here, & keep them selling for whatever the market can get here. Doctors complain about it all the time.

Don't even get me started on Cancer treatments... Every week since the 1970's there has been a lab somewhere that claims they've found a cure or advanced treatment for cancer but then is pretty much hushed up right away... Usually after selling out to companies like Merck & P&G.

It's just far too profitable to sell ineffective treatments. Cures would cut their profits down 99%.

The FDA, by the way, is supposed to be an oversight department chartered to keep citizens safe... Meanwhile it's appointed director is an ex-big-pharma CEO.

No, no conflict of interests there either... :rolleyes:

Do the blue pills make you lose all ability to process logic, too?
 
But back to the OP; I love the idea of this "game" and this really gives me a glimmer of hope for where the future jobs market can come from once all jobs are replaced by technology. Good find, Jack!
 
lukep said:
One things for sure: You two have both been taking your Blue Pills too.

Look, if big Pharma can find it profitable, at all, to sell pills in Zambia for $0.50 each and turn around and Justify selling that same pill to the US for $50 each, then something downright Conspiratorial is going on!

That means that Merck, for instance, is selling drug X to the US market at $50 a pill, and for some odd reason P&G doesn't have any interest in selling their version of the pill for $40 to us in order to compete, when we know damn well their pills sell at $0.50 elsewhere.
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What you're forgetting is the huge cost of getting the pills to market in the first place. Yes, manufacturing the actual drug is usually cheap (hence selling for $0.50 in developing countries is still profitable) but without selling for a high cost in the US there wouldn't be any monetary value in developing it in the first place. Not great for people in developed countries, but it's either that or cut back on safety testing.

The second point is price fixing - I wouldn't be at all surprised if that happens.

I've no idea whether there are drugs that should be available in the US and aren't, and I don't think anyone would argue that dodgy dealings don't go on in the industry. I just think people brining up the evil "BIG PHARMA!!1!" everytime there's a discussion on healthcare is way over the top.
 
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