Last year, gamers playing a protein-folding game titled Fold.it helped researchers at the University of Washington identify the structure of an AIDS-related enzyme that had been baffling biochemists for a decade.
In a TEDMED talk posted online today, Seth Cooper, PhD, creative director for the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington, discusses the research and the use of video games to solve difficult scientific and biomedical problems. During the talk, he also discusses how a proliferation of different games could trigger innovative changes in the structure of medical problem-solving and discovery.
Previously: O’Reilly Radar Q&A looks at how games can improve health, Paramecia PacMan: Researchers create video games using living organisms and Mob science: Video game, EteRNA, lets amateurs advance RNA research
