Foldit is a computer game that presents players with the spatial
challenge of determining the three-dimensional structures of proteins,
the molecules comprising the workforce that runs your entire body. In
diseases like HIV, proteins known as retroviral proteases play a key
role in a virus's ability to overwhelm the immune system and proliferate
throughout the body. For years, scientists have been working to
identify what these retroviral proteases look like, in order to develop
drugs that target these enzymes and stymie the progression of deadly
viral diseases like AIDS. It was a scientific puzzle that managed to
confound top-tier research scientists for over a decade... but Foldit gamers were able to pull it off in just three weeks. "The
ingenuity of game players," said biochemist Firas Khatib, "is a
formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide
range of scientific problems."