Quickie: Die Hirnnerven

Alejandro and I sat down for an interview with Seth Cooper, the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington. Dr. Cooper spoke during TEDMED about the power of play and the role that games can play in dealing with scientific challenges. Seth is a co-creator and a primary developer of Foldit, a protein folding game that allows users to help predict protein structure and design new proteins, both of which allow for the better understanding of disease and also for the development of new ways to combat disease.   CJ: In your speech today you talked about Foldit and generating the best protein shape. How is that best shaped protein determined exactly?     Seth: Within the game, everything is based on a score function obtained from biochemists. The game is based on a computational function, so if you give it a protein structure, it will give you back a number that tells you how well folded that particular protein is. It‘s based on the fundamental properties of proteins. It’s an estimate of how well folded that particular protein structure is. The way that the game works is that we post a protein structure […]